Rokushiki using Vault hunters
by Levitating Fire
Summary: What happens when a guy from our world gets contacted by handsome jack? what happens when a fast travel station digistruct's into that guy's room? what happens when that guy and his best friend set out to be vault hunters? and what happens, when after three years of training, they have learnt the ways of a superhuman martial arts style? Gaige/OC, Maya/OC.
1. U-T-C

MY FIRST STORYYYYY! nobody cares! yay!

*ahem* so, I've been reading different fanfic's for quite awhile now, and decided to make my own one… about my favourite game! BORDERLANDS 2! foopin' yeah. I'm so buying season pass as soon as I've got 2400 microsoft pts. *drools* but that's not important! on with the sto- oh I forgot.

_**DISCLAIMER: I OWN NONE OF THIS SHIT EXCEPT MY OC'S!**_

_**This story is oc-centered, the "two main character's" names are Dante and Jay. thought you'd like to know.**_

**if you actually read the disclaimer, you will find out that I'm using an OC. yay! and now, on with the story.**

_**(A/N THIS IS MY OC! NOTHING HERE IS EVEN REMOTELY RELATED TO ME. **_**just thought I'd clarify that up.** **Description: 5'7" feet high 17 years old, jet black messy hair, three scars going over his left eye ( more about those later). also has a nice bodybuild that comes from his weight lifting and other exercises he does daily. usually wears black, green, white or red clothing. currently is wearing olive green cargo pants, sandals and a polo shirt with black and red cubes on it. likes gaming, computers, cosplaying, hacking, true friends and being sarcastic. dislikes too much noise and abusing. ( in any form of the word )**

* * *

I'm sitting on the bus, alone, as usual. I'm kind of a social outcast. but I don't mind, I have a few good friends and that's enough for me, it sucks that none of them live near my place… so I just spend my evenings either doing some weight lifting, playing on my xbox 360, or surfing the internet.

the bus has just stopped and I start moving from my place on the bus and started walking towards one of the doors. One of the guy's on the bus tried to trip me, but I just stepped over his leg. immature people, truly.

as I started my 2 kilometer walk towards home, I started wondering when the last DLC pack for borderlands 2 was coming out. I wouldn't buy it though, oh no. I'd buy the season pass and get all the DLC's in one go. ( yes, I know that you don't need to wait for them all to be out until you can order the season pass )

some months ago I had bought the borderlands 1 GOTY editon. had played it like a madman till I was level 69 on every character except brick, who is currently 63. I might as well level him up a few levels once I get home. or just get my gunzerker In borderlands 2 to level 50. all of the other's are already 50.

"_about 1 kilometer left…"_ I thought to myself and tried to pick up my pace, as it had started to rain slightly.

"I wonder what it'd be like to be in one of the borderlands games… hell, it'd be fun to go around killing bandit's and kicking handsome jack's ass! But… it'd be pretty damn dangerous, too…" I shouted into the air, muttering the last part to myself and starting to run at the same time, because the nice little drip-drops of rain had just turned into the biggest outdoor shower ever. not funny.

"damn it, keys, where are you?" I asked myself, ( or my keys ) as I couldn't find them from my pockets, but then I remembered that I had put them inside my backpack because some assholes had tried to steal them. again.

"aha! here they are." I said outloud as I took my keys from the smallest pocket of my pack. I positioned the key inside, and twisted it until I heard the audible click resounding from the lock, indicating the door was open now.

"home sweet home." I muttered to myself as I put down my pack and started making my way upstairs – to my xbox.

"_I'll postpone my weight-lifting for today. I'll just do my regular course twice tomorrow."_ I thought and started my xbox up. _"maybe I'll get Salvador to 50 first, and then brick to 69." _ Removing the borderlands 1 cd and putting inside the borderlands 2 one, I sat down in my recliner chair and began to wait as the familiar starting screen popped up. I switched my character from zer0 to Salvador. Zer0 was always my favourite. I've always been one for the sneaky, mysterious characters. that's probably why I got mordecai to level 69, and zer0 to 50 first.

I pushed the "A" button on the controller and the vault hunter mark popped up giving me the regular "this mark shows up, game is saving, don't shut down console, blah blah blah." and so on.

but something… odd… happened. my gunzerker didn't start from the dust, where I left him. he was in a room. a square room with a huge-ass TV in front of him. _"the fuck? where the hell am I? why isn't Salvador in the dust?" _ I thought to myself and watched as the TV in my TV ( A/N TVCEPTION! ) turned on and it showed the face of handsome jack.

"what the hell do you mean you can't get this U-T-C system to work ?! I want to find a super soldier powerful enough to wipe all of those vault hunter's off the map!" handsome jack shouted

"the actual fuck?" I said out loud and jack froze for a moment, then turned towards an engineer I hadn't noticed before. "did you say that? or was it one of you guys?" I saw him pointing at other people. engineers, presumably, that weren't inside the screen for me to see. "no sir, the systems indicate that the voice came from the new U-T-C system, sir." somebody outside the screen responded in a hurried, slightly panicked tone of voice. "so the system IS working?!" handsome jack shouted. "YES! hey, you, guy in the screen, can you see me? hear me? cause we here can't see you." he said in a hurried tone, that quite much implied that he didn't wish to wait too long for an answer. "yeah, I can see AND hear you. and the one guy behind your left shoulder." whilst I said that, I saw Salvador… disappear from the room, but the screen still stayed there.

"oh, that? he's mick. one of my mid-class engineers. But that isn't important at the moment! the important thing here is, that we've gained connection to another universe! To another plane of existence!" jack shouted out loud, a hint of insanity evident in his voice.

"_what the fuck is going on here? this shouldn't be happening… and another plane of existence? how interesting… we'll see where this goes"_ I thought so myself and said: "that's quite a huge thing to do, but why did you want a connection to another universe?" he seemed to think for a moment. quite likely trying to come up with a lie. I wouldn't really believe what he'd say, anyway. I mean, game's main villain? like hell I'd believe him. "well, uhm… the Hyperion corporation, which's president I am, wants to extend an olive branch into other universes and see them blossom! to become as intelligent as we are! so, we are going to transport a fast travel station there, is that acceptable?" he asked, but knowing that even if I declined, he'd still get the thing here… _"but a fast travel station? would that mean I'd be able to travel to places like sanctuary or so from here? no, wait, that shouldn't be basically possible, considering I've never been there…"_ "a fast travel station? the name indicates that you can use it for moving purposes… does this mean that I could use it, too?" I asked, trying to keep my voice as monotone as possible. "technically, yes. but as you're from a different universe, I'm not exactly sure how that travel would work. it might even kill you." jack answered from the screen inside my TVwith an unreadable expression on his face. I didn't like that.

"i… see… but it'd still be pos-" I was cut off by the engineer who was standing behind jack. "i-it seems that if you'd do that travel, you'd also move in time by 3 years. you'd come here, but you'd be on a planet called "Pandora" and-" I watched as jack shot the engineer, presumably to silence him. "you are not to inform random people in other universes of anything like this. UNDERSTOOD?!" he shouted to the other engineers, which I still couldn't see. _"I assume they're nodding, considering I'm not hearing any speaking… they must be too scared to actually respond with words." _I thought to myself, and watched as jack Digistructed the weapon to… where-ever he keeps his items, I suppose. "so, if you won't mind it too much, we'd like you to…come over, I suppose. see how the travel works and so on." as he said this, a mini-fast travel station started to materialize in my room. "might want to pack your stuff up, if you're actually up for this. if you're not, no worries. we'll just move the station to somewhere else. you have 24 hours to decide. if we notice the device has been used, we'll un-digistruct it and that's that." when he finished, the screen went black, and my xbox turned off. but the station remained there. in my room, as if it had always been there. _"wait a moment. they were looking for a super soldier, and now they want ME to go on Pandora? I'm in no ways a super soldier! and the damn thing shut down before I could ask any questions… goddammit, jack." _ what should I do? this is a once in a life time chance… far smaller than winning a lottery, for hell's sake! I could do all kinds of badass stuff on Pandora… _"wonder if I could get a friend there, too? hell, why not?" _with that thought, I rushed downstairs to find my phone.

After a few minutes of vigorous searching, I finally found it, and decided to call my best friend since kindergarten: Jay. *beep* *beep* *beep* _"come on, man. answer!" _ finally, after about 20 seconds he finally answered. "sup, Dante?" I heard my friends groggy voice come from my phone. the guy sleeps most of his free-time. probably woke him up just now. "listen, something completely badass has just happened. be at my place yesterday, and also, bring everything you'll need for a very, very ,VERY long trip. possibly a trip that will end only when we die. " I said quickly and shut down my phone, so that he wouldn't spend 2 hours trying to call me back and ask what's happening._"_ _he'd be here faster this way too" _and with that thought I rushed back upstairs, to pack up lots of stuff I know I'll use whilst in Pandora.

_*** 3 hours later.***_

so, after 2 hours of packing and 1 hour of waiting for Jay, I finally heard the doorbell ringing. Rushing downstairs and opening the front door to let him in, I saw him carrying a huge-ass backpack. he really prepares a lot when you tell him to. "so what's this hassle all about?" he asked me looking slightly peeved.

**( DESCRIPTION OF JAY: 5'8" feet tall, 18 years old, short bedhead hair. also has a decent bodybuild like Dante. favours yellow/white clothing, currently wearing a white hoodie, black jeans and a t-shirt that's visible under the hoodie. loves games, good music, cosplaying and computers. Dislikes spoiled people and bicycles.**

"well, when I was just about to get my gunzerker to level 50, something odd happened. the gunzerker didn't start from the dust, where I recall leaving him, but instead he was in a huge-ass room with a big, black TV screen. suddenly, the screen flickered on, and the face of handsome jack came up, and he started babbling about contacting other universes, and then they somehow digistructed a fucking fast travel station in my room, it's one of those one-trip stations that you see in boss areas." I said in one breath, watching his eyes widen all the time. "now, now. maybe you hit your head too hard. again." he said and started leading me to my living room in the downstairs and was about to set me down on the sofa when I shouted: "NO! I'm not going bat-shit crazy at the moment here. there seriously is a fast travel station upstairs!" as I said this I grabbed his wrist and started leading him upstairs. when we were there I let go off his arm and he was gaping at the station like a fish. "see? I'm not mad!" I shouted with joy and started doing a random dance around my room whilst my friend still kept on gaping at the fast travel station. after a few minutes of that, I stopped my dance and hit him over the head to get him stop the gaping. "stop gaping like a fish. the important things are these: if we go to Pandora, we'll land in a time three years before the happenings of borderlands 1 or 2. or that's what I gathered from the engineer jack shot. and, as you can see, this is a one-way station. there's no coming back after this. what I'm asking is, would you come with me, to Pandora? off of this hellhole of a planet?" the main reason we've been best friends for so long, is because both of our lives were full of shit. but that's a story for another time. "HELL YEAH!" he shouted and I couldn't resist smiling. having a friend coming with me really helps my mind to settle down. "so how's this thing work, anyway? we put our hands on it or something like that?" he asked, looking at the fast travel station with a puzzled look on his face. "I don't know… let's see. c'mere." I said and started making my way towards the fast travel station and I laid my hand on top of it. suddenly, a list of locations kind of… appeared in my mind? I quess that's the best way to say it. "put your hand on it, and tell me, where should we go." I said and saw from the corner of my eye as jay laid his hand on top of the fast travel station too. his eyes widened for a moment. probably taking in the list he was seeing. "does your station have only three locations, too?" he asked me after awhile. "now that you mention it… yeah, only three." but none of those three were even remotely related to the places you could travel to in borderlands 1 or 2. _"Train station, The pit and The library? the hell?" _with that thought I said: "well where should we go to? I'm not 100% sure, but I think the "train station" is the place where the vault hunters leave from… and because in borderlands 1, the four vault hunters come in with a bus, I think this'll be inside borderlands 2. and jack's engineer also mentioned we'd go back in time by 3 years, so I'd suggest training those 3 years… what do you say?" you could see that Jay was thinking about this. he's pretty damn clever if he wants to. "well, how about we visit this library first? maybe we could find some information there about our current… predicament. but- no wait, that wouldn't be really possible if we do travel 3 years back in time… but should we still check it out?" he asked, hesitation evident in his voice. "sure, why not?" with that thought in mind I picked "The library" from the list visible in my mind and let the odd pulling feeling take me. The last thing I saw was Jay's figure digistructing out of existence.

And that's when I lost my consciousness

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_**And that is the very first chapter of Rokushiki using vault hunters!**_

_**please review, give me suggestions, anything at all! flames? sure. go on ahead. I'll probably just ignore them. ^_^ so anyways. I like constructive critizism. and yeah, the first chapter is rather short, but I promise that the following chapters will always be 2-6k in words, and 'special' chapters will be 8k words in length. enjoy life and have a good day. *tips hat towards readers and walks away all gentlemanly***_


	2. Three Tests

_**The second chapter of the Rokushiki using vault hunters! enjoy! criticism is always welcome! I shall ignore flames, but to heck with it, send them too if you like!**_

_**IMPORTANT! I also noticed I made a mistake in the last chapter… a small part of the story was inside the disclaimer/other stuff area… the bus part of dante. dang. sorry about that! won't happen again! :p**_

_**oh and also, if you have any questions, please put a Q: in the beginning of the question. otherwise i'll just think it'll be a rethorical question. **_

_**me: zer0! wanna do the disclaimer?**_

_**zer0: …**_

_**me: aww cmon! do it!**_

_**zer0: …**_

_**me: do it before i…i…uhm… make you never do a haiku in this story! EVER!**_

_**zer0: *monotone sigh* " outside characters / nothing more owned by this man / gearbox forever."**_

_**me: yay for haiku! enjoy the story! and with that said, i don't own one piece or the rokushiki either.**_

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everything was black. I could feel myself floating in a never-ending liquid like substance. "D…e!" a shout? a whisper? I don't know any more. everything feels so comfortable. such a nice feeling. "D…n…e!" again? such peacefulness… being disturbed by something from the outside world… such an unpleas- "**DANTE!**" with a jolt I sat up, realizing I had been unconscious. "what- who- where?" I asked disorientedly, not remembering much. "it's me man, jay. you alright?" I heard jay say next to me. ah yes. now I remember. "what the hell happened whilst I was unconscious?" I asked, trying to figure out where we were. "we both were unconscious. I just woke up a few minutes ago myself, tried to wake you up for maybe two minutes or so." he said and offered me a hand, which I gladly took and when he had pulled me up, I asked: "so, is this the library?" looking around the place, I noticed there was only one book. on a big stand at the end of the room. "not many books here… but yeah, I guess so." he said and made his way to the one book and started studying it. as I walked over to him and the book I wondered: _"why the hell is there only one book. in a huge ass library like this?" _when I reached him, I noticed he had picked up the book and was reading it. his eyes were wide and soon enough, he was gaping at the book with his mouth open. again.

"dude, you're gaping. again." I said and watched as he jolted out of his momentary 'gaping-session' as I like to call them. "man, come here! this book basically teaches you how to use the Rokushiki fighting style from the anime 'One Piece'!" ( A/N yes, dat crossover. partially. nothing more from anything from anything else )

"the actual fuck? that's completely unrelated to borderlands! why the hell is there a book about rokushiki, of all things, in here?!" I shouted, trying to comprehend the fact that there was a book. about a freaking superhuman fighting style. right there. "nevermind that, is there like, instructions? as to how we could use this fighting style?" I asked, feeling slightly annoyed at myself for shouting at first.

"well, there seems to be all kinds of stuff in here about the rokushiki, like, uhm…" I watched as he flipped a page or two and stopped to read something. "okays, so here is a table of contents. there's some kata's you can use at first, then there's all the six moves described here. hell, this book gives more information than the one piece show itself does! but… the rokuogan isn't here, for some reason…" he said in a loud voice, muttering the last part to himself. "well, the rokuogan is basically the 'ultimate attack' of that fighting style. I guess whoever made that book wanted to keep it a secret. but in any case, should we start training already? and get out of this place? it gives me the creeps…" I said and started making my way back to the fast travel station that I hadn't noticed before. that said, Jay picked up the book and said: "yeah, it feels as if we are being watched…let's get out of here." with that, we both sprinted to the fast travel station, laid our hands on it again, and digistructed out of the library, and into 'The pit'.

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"two young lads eh… wanting to learn the ways of the rokushiki and knowing the rokuogan…? this ought to be interesting, I daresay…" a mysterious figure said in a deep voice from the shadows near the pedestal where the rokushiki based book had once been located. "let's see if those brats actually have what it takes to learn this superhuman style… _**SORU!**_" with that, the mysterious figure vanished in a blur of speed and appeared before the fast travel station which had been dozens of feet away. laying his hand on top of it and digistructing from the library to The pit.

* * *

"well, what now...?" i asked Jay. we are currently in a huuuge pit. literally. there was nothing more than a fast travel station, a Marcus Munitions and Dr. Zed's Med's vending machines and the rest was a nearly endless pit. But no Guns machines? "i don't know... let's get to training, i guess?" he said, still reading the book. "why didn't we lose consciousness just now?" i asked randomly. "well, maybe that was a one-time thing. very good if it was, no need to worry about fainting every time we do fast travel." he said, flipping a page in the rokushiki based book. "but wait... didn't you need to learn the style from a master of it?! how the hell are we sup-" i was cut off by a deep voice. "greetings, children." i couldn't help but freeze, from the corner of my eye i could see that Jay had frozen too. that voice held so much power. "oh, you can notice my strength? not many can do that without being taught by me... maybe you brats can do something." the voice said, now much closer. "w-who are you?" i mustered enough willpower to ask. the voice let out a hearty chuckle and now i could FEEL that the man was behind me and Jay. "that isn't important at the moment. it seems you've got your hands on the book of rokushiki. and from what i gather, you'd want to learn the ways of rokushiki too." he said in a calm voice which cause me and Jay not to be freezed anymore. "s-so you'd be willing to train us?" Jay asked, probably still slightly scared at the man that we now saw properly. He appeared to be in his late sixties. he had long white hair and beard, and was wearing a white kimono with straw sandals. apparently he's blind too. there's a huge X scar on his forehead, stretching over both of his eyes. "yes. if you pass a... test, if you will." he said with a warm smile. "what kind of a test?" jay asked after a few seconds of contemplating. "three different tests, to be exact. a test of strength, a test of skill and a test of willpower." the old man said as he started making his way towards the fast travel station. "meet me in the ln the library. we'll have the test of willpower first." with that the man digistructed out of the pit, leaving us astounded. "should we follow this guy? there's something...odd about him..." Jay said, his eyes narrowing at the spot in front of the fast travel station where the old man had been standing. "well, it's not like we have other ways of getting stronger than this, right? so let's trust him... for now. but let's keep our eyes open. if we truly are at pandora, then hell, just about anything is ready to backstab us." i said, also making my way towards the fast travel station. "coming?" i asked jay, once i noticed that he hadn't moved from his location._  
_

"well, i quess we've got no other choice here... *sigh* alright. let's go." Jay said, walking to the fast travel station and laying his hand on top of it and Digistructing out of The pit. _"you're always too suspicious of people, jay..." _with that thought i too laid my hand on the fast travel station and Digistructed myself to the library

* * *

when i arrived in the library, the old man was standing a few feet away holding some sort of an orb which was half black, half white. Jay was standing about two feet to my right and was staring at the orb intently. "uhm...something happened in these few seconds that i wasn't here? jay?"i asked timidly. "yeah, this geezer explained what the test of willpower is..." jay said, moving towards the old man and picking up the orb from his hands.

"now, now, child. it's not nice calling people with names like that." the man said after jay had picked up the orb. "and because you weren't here, the test of willpower will be testing your resolve to live. if the orb goes fully black, you will immediately die. and if it goes completely white, you pass the first test." he said still sporting that calming smile. "Die? that's... quite a big risk there..." i said, looking at the orb that jay was now holding, at the moment i also noticed he had fallen on his knees and that the orb was almost fully black. "JAY!" i shouted, rushing over to him. "well, your friend jay has already started his test... and lest i forget, what's your name, child?" he asked whilst making his way over to jay. "Dante. but what about you? we never got your name either. and what the hell's happening to him?!" i shouted, trying to keep myself calm, and i was failing at it. alot. "you can call me Lucard. and like i said, he is going through his test of willpower." the man now known as 'lucard' said, still keeping that calm voice, which was currently becoming a bit annoying. "what the hell's happening to him?!" i shouted, trying to rip the orb from Jay's hands, but it wouldn't budge. "how many times must i say this... he is going through his test of willpower. what he's currently going through, i do not know. for the test is different for every individual. and during the test, time is distorted, so he might have already been doing the test for hours. or so he thinks. or for a few seconds. it depends on how difficult your life has been." lucard said whilst staring at the orb intently, now that it had slightly gained more 'light' colour. suddenly, the orb flashed as if there were thousand suns lit right in front of me. when the light finally died down, i found Jay, completely back to his normal self, but the orb was now glowing completely white, and on his hip was an odd...hilt of some sorts. _"reminds me of zer0's katana's hilt..."_ and as i finished my thought, he just fainted there, still clutching the orb. "JAY!" i shouted once more, trying to catch him before his head hit the floor. luckily enough, i made it in time. "congratulations. your friend has passed. but now is your turn." lucard said. "but wha-" before i could say anything else, another orb was shoved into my hands, and i found myself sitting on a very, very small island inside a pond. there was a waterfall in front of me, but aside from the pond, the mini island, and the waterfall, there was nothing. pitch-black darkness was circling the pond and it formed a small pathway to the waterfall. _"where the hell am i?" _i thought to myself and stood up on the small island and tried to analyze my surroundings. _"not much to analyze though, only the pond, island and the waterf-" _my train of thought was cut off by a freezing whisper. **"welcome, my doppelganger." **the sound had frozen me to the core, but i forced myself to turn towards the waterfall, where the whisper had come from. instead of facing the waterfall, i found myself. except i was crying blood, and i was apparently chewing my own left hand. _"oh god, what the hell?!" _i thought and nearly gagged from the disgusting sight. **"indeed, this is the future you. nothing more than a blood-carving psychopath, who will do no one any good! you will only cause harm to the ones who claim to be your friends! you're truly pathetic. but you know what? i'll give you a choice." **during the small speech, i had fallen to my knees as the words had started to sink in. suddenly, a black sword digistructed in front of me. it was nearly an exact copy of zer0's sword, except that it was, well, black. **"free yourself from this living nightmare, and commit suicide... or rot for all eternity as nothing more than an empty shell of a human, devoured inside by demons!" **as he finished, the pond transformed into a small arena, and the sword had moved on it's own accord and...locked itself onto my hand. _"yes... freedom..." _i thought absentmindedly as i positioned the sword over my stomach. **"DO IT! DO IT!" **my doppelganger yelled with all it's might. just as i was about to pierce my stomach, pictures of my past family and Jay flashed in front of my eyes. _"no...they wouldn't want me to do this...__" _with that thought i removed the blade from it's position and stabbed it into the ground in front of me. "sorry, but i still have some thing's to live for." i said in a calm, monotone voice. my doppelganger has started muttering randomly. "no...no...it- you- dead, but... no...no...**NO!**" with that yell my doppelganger vanished into thin air and for a few moments,i shut my eyes completely, because all i saw was a blinding light. after the light had gone away, i opened my eyes and met face to face with Jay and Lucard. "congratulations, it seems you passed too." lucard said, but his voice sounded so distant... "is he going to faint like i did?" Jay asked...or shouted...or whispered... i don't know anymore. "it seems he won't be doing that. he has slightly more willpower than you do, jay." lucard said, and my sense were stabilizing now. "hey, you got a sword too?" jay asked, his eyes locked onto a hilt that had been somehow attached to my hip. "blade? what are you talking about?" i asked, still feeling slightly out of it. "well, after i regained consciousness, i had a sword's hilt on my hip too!" he said, shouting the last part and drawing the hilt. although the moment he drew it, it wasn't a lonely hilt anymore though, as a blood-red katana digistructed onto the hilt. "cool, eh? looks like zer0's sword, except red." he said with excitement lacing his voice. _"i got a bad-ass looking blade too? this hilt?" _i asked myself and drew the hilt. once it was in my hands, an ebony katana digistructed onto it. i could hear jay give a low whistle at my blade. "unfair... you got an ebony coloured one and i got red?" he said, sounding a bit whiny. "dude, yours is BLOOD-red. not just regular red. it's quite intimidating too." i said, trying to rise his spiritis, and gladly enough, i succeeded in it. "true, true." he said whilst studying the blade closer. "well, now that you've passed your first test and received an... additional reward of sorts, let us move back to the pit, where i shall be holding your two final tests." Lucard said and digistructed away once he had walked over to the fast travel station. "let's gooo!" Jay shouted as he pulled me up from the floor where i had been laying. "sure." i said, and with that, both of us walked over to the station and digistructed out of the library.

* * *

once we arrived in the pit, we saw lucard standing about six feet in front of us. and as we walked towards him, he turned around, now holding two yellow orbs. "it is time for the test of skill. you shall be using two orbs, yet, you'll be doing it together. come onward." he said and once we reached him and picked up the orbs, i once more felt myself falling down and my vision was clouded in black again.

* * *

_**JAY'S P.O.V**_

such a serene feeling... but there's something disturbing this serenity. *whoosh* the air? why is the wind moving fast enough to create that sound...? well, it's nothing to worry about. this is all a huge dream... and bec- _***whoosh***_ i felt my eyes snap open as i instinctively dodged an arrow that had nearly embedded itself onto my head. "what the fuck?!" i shouted and started looking around, readying myself for more, but none came. still not letting my guard down, i tried to find Dante. _***FIVE MINUTES LATER***_ ...and he's still unconscious. "Wake up, man!" i yelled and started shaking him in order to get him to get up. "huh- wha- wut?" he muttered and started looking around _"dammit, not the time to act like a drunkard, dante." _i thought and hit him with slight strength "snap out of it! this is the 2nd test here, so get up and don't let your guard down." i said and watched as he rose up from the ground. "oh... okay... this is the test of skill, eh? what do we need to do?" he asked, looking around. "i don't know, but just now two arrows went past my head, so be careful." i said still looking around. "skill... could that mean agility, reaction speed, flexibility and such?" Dante asked from behind me. "quite possible." as i said that i heard another whizzing sound coming from my right. "Down!" i shouted and pulled Dante down with me, and watched as four arrows flew over our heads. **"Dodge the different projectiles and weaponry for three minutes to pass. Good luck."** came a chilling voice from the depths of the darkness that was surrounding us. "**Well, shit." **i and Dante said at the same time, and at that very moment, a multitude of arrows, bullets, knives and other life-threatening items came at us with varying speeds. thankfully they weren't as fast as they should have been, otherwise we'd be mince-meat at the moment. "well, this'll be interesting" i said whilst dodging swinging halberds. who knows where they were hanging from. "damn straight!" Dante said whilst...dancing between the arrows and daggers that came at him? "...are you fucking serious, dante? dancing at a time like this...?" i asked, trying to comprehend why the hell he's dancing, now of all times. "because i simply want to show this test that it has nothing on me!" he shouted whilst smirking like an idiot and then he started to break-dance when the halberds came at him... _"this is just too much like you... being so relaxed at a moment like this... wonder how much time has passed already?" _i thought to myself and dodged a spear that came flying towards me from the darkness. **"Two minutes left." **well, that was useful... "thanks, mysterious voice in the shadows!" i shouted and kept on dodging everything the test was throwing at us. "as he came into the window, it was the-" Dante started singing. "NOT THE TIME FOR THAT, DANTE!" i shouted as suddenly the amount of projectiles tripled. **"One minute left. Hardest part has begun. Good luck." **the creepy voice whispered from the shadows. "sorry! i just wanted to sing something and that just came to my min- WHOA!" he said, shouting the last part in surprise, as he dodged an array of bullets matrix-style. "these damn things just keep coming!" i shouted and noticed that dante had stopped dancing, finally taking this seriously, albeit he was still doing small spins and even a slight occasional moonwalk here and there. _"dammit, this isn't going well..." _i thought to myself as an arrow whizzed past my head, cutting off a few hairs. "how long is this going to last?!" i shouted, not expecting an answer, yet, i got one **"Twenty seconds left." **the voice whispered once more. "well, that was helpful!" Dante shouted as he desperately dodged a few spears, another magical swinging halberd, and about five arrows. "damn it, damn it, damn it!" i shouted and continued on evading the different weaponry that was coming at me. Then, i felt my eyes widen as i tripped to something that wasn't even there. everything's slower as i'm falling down and an arrow is coming at my head from the darkness. "JAY!" i heard Dante shout from my right, and saw him trying to reach me and dodge everything that was being shot at him. But he wouldn't make it. i knew. and quite possibly so did he. "damn. i failed." i said, trying to keep my voice as even as possible and watched as the arrow was about to pierce my head. But then, the arrow suddenly digistructed to nothingness. **"congratulations. you've passed." **The voice said and i felt myself being tugged out of the darkness.

* * *

_"what the fuck just happened...?" _i thought to myself as i opened my eyes, and noticed that i was laying in The Pit again, i also saw Dante standing a few feet away from me, speaking to Lucard. "what the hell happened?" i asked, sounding slightly groggy. "JAAAAAAAAAY! you're up!" Dante shouted and tried to run towards me but Lucard kept him off. "now that you've passed two of the tests, it's time for the last one, the test of strength, which will only take ten seconds." Lucard said, giving Dante an odd rock, walking over to me, and giving me a similar one too. "what're these for?" i and Dante asked at the same time. "just hold them for ten seconds, starting now." He said and i wasn't prepared for the sudden increase in the rock's weight, nearly dropping it but managing to lift it back up. Dante too was having problems, as the weight of the rock seemed to keep on increasing and increasing. "What...the fuck is wrong...with these rocks?!" Dante shouted, still managing to keep his rock on his arms, but for some reason i didn't have as much exertion in my arms as Dante seemed to have... or so i'm guessing... "How the fuck...should i know?!" i shouted, nearly dropping the rock because now it felt as if it was over one hundred kilograms. "it'll drop soo-" Dante was saying, but was cut off by Lucard. "ten seconds are over, go ahead and drop the rocks now." and with that, both of us let the rock's slide from our hands onto the ground. "congratulations. you've officially passed all the tests, and now, i can train you with the ways of rokushiki... but there's a few rules you must follow during the training." The old man said, taking out a book and opening it. "first, you will do everything i'll tell you to. second, there will be NO whining, third, you will, after the training is done, never tell anyone you've met me. UNDERSTOOD?!" he said calmly, but shouting the last part. "SIR, YES, SIR!" me and Dante shouted in unison. this WILL be a fun ride.


	3. Rankyaku

**Hellloooo everyoneeee! this is the third chapter of Rokushiki using vault hunters! and in the end of the last chapter, I didn't have anything to say, so there was nothing down there back then…**

**Disclaimer: well, zer0 didn't wanna do it this time, and I don't have any leverages to use on the others to get them to do the disclaimer…yet… but yeah, I don't own Borderlands, one piece or anything affiliated with them. I'm just a random fan of anime and good games, mkay?**

**btw, I will be answering questions even without the Q: in the beginning of the question.**

_**IMPORTANTTTTTTTTT!**_

**Here are the techniques of the rokushiki. There are multiple variations of every technique, so it'd be really useful if you googled "one piece - Rokushiki"**

**Soru: ( Literally translates to 'shave' in English. ) allows the users to move at extremely high speeds in order to avoid attacks, as well as to attack at higher speeds and with greater power. It was revealed that the principle of this move was to kick off the ground at least ten times in the blink of an eye.**

**Kami-e: ( Literally translates to 'Paper Drawing' ) makes the users' body go limp in order to avoid any attacks, and float like a piece of paper.**

**Tekkai: ( Literally translates to 'Iron Mass' or 'Iron Body' ) hardens the users' muscles to the level of iron, in order to nullify damage taken from attacks. However, it can be broken by strong enough forces. A setback of this technique is that you are unable to move, with the exception of Tekkai kenpo. ( more of that in the later chapters. )**

**Geppo: ( Literally translates to 'Moon Step' ) allows the users to actually jump off the air itself, allowing them to stay in the air for much longer than usual. you can use this technique to cross great distances without ever touching the ground, or set yourself up for swift, aerial attacks.**

**Rankyaku: ( Literally translates to 'Storm Leg' ) is a powerful projectile technique, in which the users start by kicking at very high speeds and strength, sending out a sharp compressed air blade that can slice objects and greatly damage a human body. However, it has been shown that almost any length of appendage (such as a tail or neck) at high velocities are also capable of this move.**

**Shigan: ( Literally translates to 'Finger Gun' ) is a close-quarter combat technique, in which the user pushes their finger into a certain target at a very high speed, leaving a wound similar to a bullet wound. It is a very useful technique that can connect rapidly and accurately, which works well with the Rokushiki users' impressive speed and agile techniques.**

**Rokuogan: ( Literally translates to 'Six King Gun' ) is the secret and ultimate attack of the Rokushiki style. it is stated that only those who have absolute mastery of the other six skills can have access to this seventh skill. The user places both his/her fists right in front of the target and launches a devastating shock wave, which seems to have a huge force, and causing massive internal injuries. This is only used during desperate situations. **

**That's about it. and a skill tree, you say? hmm, I don't know… I'll give it some thought. I suck at drawing but if can, I'll try and come up with some random sketches. ( I already have some in mind. mwahahahaha. ) **

**one of the epic THREE ( epic amount is epic. ) people who have reviewed told me that my chappies are like long sentences! so I shall now push the mighty 'Enter' every once in a while. ENJOY!**

**ON WITH THE STORY!**

_Recap: "congratulations. you've officially passed all the tests, and now, i can train you with the ways of rokushiki... but there's a few rules you must follow during the training." The old man said, taking out a book and opening it. "first, you will do everything i'll tell you to. second, there will be NO whining, third, you will, after the training is done, never tell anyone you've met me. and finally, if you actually finish the training, you will not use the techniques unless you, or your loved ones are in grave ?!" he said calmly, but shouting the last part. "SIR, YES, SIR!" me and Dante shouted in unison. this WILL be a fun ride._

***1 Year Later* (IMPORTANT! I'll clarify one thing here! when Dante and Jay went 3 years back in time when they traveled, they didn't de-age, but they won't grow older for three years either. and another thing… well, it'd be really boring for me to write… a day every chapter? for like 1000+ chapters? so I'll do a 1 year every chapter. so 3 chapters! Thank you for reading this)**

**Dante's P.O.V**

"_it's been one year… one long year of pure training…and two more to come, oh gods, help me…" _ I thought to myself as jay and I once more came back from a fourteen hour training-montage. and that montage is DAILY!

so far, we've mastered Soru and Kami-e. so four more techniques to go. five, if you count the rokuogan. "hey, wonder what technique we will start learning tomorrow?" jay asked from beside me as we laid in the make-shift beds in the library that lucard had pretty much forced us to make.

"don't know yet… the old guy wants us to master the 'easier' techniques first, as he calls them." I answered, still panting from the ungodly fourteen hour session of mad training.

"how the fuck are any of these techniques 'easy' to master! it took us one year, ONE YEAR! to master just two of them! and we are barely starting on the third one!" he shouted . or tried, atleast, because there's lots of shouting when you're escaping from the old man's overpowered rankyaku's or shigan's. your throat goes sore after some time of that shouting…

"i know, bro. i know. but he also said that it'll get 'slightly' easier now. he could've atleast specified what he exactly meant there..." i said, about to fall asleep. you seriously need every ounce of rest you can get. we have only like... one day a year off from training...

"anyways... let's get some rest, i'm tired. too tired." Jay said, closing his eyes and burying his face onto his pillow.

"sure... i'm veeery sleepy at the moment, too..." i said, trying to hold back a yawn, but let it out. and with that, i too buried my face into the pillow and drifted into the cozy land of sleep.

* * *

such calamity, peacefulness and harmony. Nothing, NOTHING could break this feeling of peace. not eve- "WAKEY, WAKEY, BRATS!" i was ripped away from the feeling of ease with a shout and a rankyaku from Lucard. same happened to Jay too, cause he was up, and his bed, too was nearly sliced in half.

"what the hell, lucard? you make us build beds then you break them?!" i shouted, slightly annoyed at the rude wake-up AND at the fact that he just goes and destroys the beds we build.

"i agree, the hell man?" Jay asked. I also deducted that he still hadn't woken up yet properly, considering his eyes were half-lidded. did i mention that i was more agile and fast than jay, but he was stronger? my reaction time was also better. so basically, while my soru and kami-e and geppo, whenever we learn that one, are better than Jay's, but the other one's, like Rankyaku, Shigan and tekkai... well, he's probably going to be better in them than me.

"you'll build new one's before you go to sleep, brats. but now! we shall start the day with your third technique, the rankyaku!" he shouted and started making his way towards the fast travel station. "meet me in the pit. we will begin in five minutes." he said and digistructed himself out of the library.

"rankyaku...the storm leg, if i'm not mistaken?" Jay asked a few feet away from me whilst putting on his 'training suit'. yeah, the old man had insisted that we wear these elastic suits, otherwise i wouldn't have any problems, but, well... THEY'RE PINK! sheesh.

"yeah, that's the one. it's our first offensive technique, too." i said whilst putting on MY training suit. these things are a big blow to our nearly non-existent egos.

"alright... let's gooo!" Jay shouted and started making his way towards the fast travel station. i followed him, and we laid our hands on the station and digistructed out to the pit, following Lucard.

* * *

once we arrived in the pit, i noticed lucard standing next to six different blocks. two made of wood, two made of ice and two made of steel or metal, i'm guessing. "so, brats. the rankyaku is actually really easy to teach, but to master it to it's highest aspect, you must utilize every muscle in your leg, and that's the hardest part. AND when you've mastered it to that extent, we'll move onto the next technique. i'd say it'll take you this day to learn the technique, but a rough six to eight months to fully master it. and, i expect you to slice through these wooden and ice blocks by the end of the day. and in five months, i want you to slice through this steel block." Lucard said whilst seating himself on top of the steel block.

"so basically, kick with very much speed and strength, compressing the air into sharp blade-like waves... shouldn't be too hard." he said and... fell asleep.

"SERIOUSLY, OLD MAN?! WHAT'S WITH THE VAGUE INSTRUCTIONS?! AND WHY THE HELL DID YOU FALL ASLEEP SO LIKE THAT?!" i shouted and beside me, Jay was gaping like a goldfish.

"well, i guess it'll always be like this, with him giving out his overly vague instructions... he just can't be too specific." Jay said after he managed to stop the gaping.

"i know, i know... sheesh. but anyways, let's just get to learning these, i guess?" i said hesitantly and started trying to make strong enough kicks to form compressed wind-blades. which was hard. VERY hard. From the corner of my eye i could see that Jay had also started trying to form kicks with enough strength and speed behind them to create the air-blades, but it was hard for him, too. "well, this'll be annoying..." i muttered to myself, but apparently Jay heard me, considering the way his shoulders slumped slightly.

_***3 HOURS LATER***_

so, after three hours of vigorously trying to form the compressed air-blades, all we could accomplish, was these pathetic cuts, that would never go through any of the three blocks. But i guess that was to be expected, considering there's no way we'd just randomly master any of the techniques. except maybe geppo, considering we've already fully mastered soru and now doing the rankyaku. All of those techniques required an extensive amount of leg strength.

"god damn it all to hell. why couldn't Lucard have given us even slightly more detailed instructions?" i asked from myself and jay whilst trying to make the rankyaku and only managing to make a pathetic little... blue thingy, that moved very slowly. it hit Jay and didn't even give him a cut. and that thing's supposed to go through steel like it's butter... seriously.

"he's just a lazy ass..." Jay muttered and continued on trying to form proper rokushiki's.

"he said that we must utilize every muscle in our legs, right?" i said, remembering what he had said before he fell asleep.

"yeah... so?" Jay asked and stopped trying to make the air-blades for a while.

"well, maybe we haven't been doing so? personally, i've no idea how to actually use every muscle in my leg for a kick like this..." i said and scratched the back of my head sheepishly.

"i see..." Jay said and rushed towards the fast travel station. "wait here!" he shouted and digistructed somewhere. to the library, i'm guessing...

***ANOTHER 3 HOURS LATER***

well, lucard's still sleeping and Jay didn't come back yet... so i'm just here, trying to make proper rokushiki's. they're better than what they were earlier, but far from perfection.

"HEY! i'm baaaack!" Jay shouted from behind me, and as i glanced over my shoulder, i noticed him holding some random book whilst running towards me.

"well, found anything?" i asked, already feeling slightly worn-out due to the 6 hours we had ( or i had ) just trainer, considering he was looking for the book for 3 hours... whatever the book was for, it'd better be worth it.

"yup! i'm not sure why, but there was this book about martial arts, and on few of it's pages, the book describes how to utilize every muscle in any bodypart!" he shouted and started skimming through the pages of the book.

"i see... that'll be useful, very useful." i muttered and sat down on the sandy ground of the pit and decided to wait until he finds the pages which shall tell us how to utilize all of our muscles.

...

"found it yet?" i asked after a few minutes had passed and he was still going through the pages.

"no, not ye- wait! here, it's here." he said and stared at the pages intently, reading them very thoroughly. Whenever Jay really was interested in some book, he would always absorb every word in that book and study it with professionalism.

"i see, i see... here, Dante, catch." he said and threw the book at me, and with one hand i caught it and tried to find the page he had been on. "page 327." he said and started forming the rokushiki's. They were much better and refined, and as it hit the ice block, it got sliced in half. With that, i raised an eyebrow and opened the book on the page 327 and began reading.

***8 HOURS LATER***

So, In the end, we managed to make decent rokushiki's, and at one point Lucard had woken up and started shouting at us for only slicing the wooden block only nearly in half. but both of us managed to get the ice block in one go. it wasn't fully ice, there was only a very small layer of ice, and the rest of it was some sort of jelly stuff that resembled ice, but was very easy to slice through.

"alright, brats! tomorrow, we'll start the day with the "traditional" way to train rokushiki!" Lucard shouted and both me and Jay paled at that. every time lucard said the word "traditional", it meant something horrifying, for example, when he had decided to use the "traditional" training method for soru, he had chased us all around the pit with a freaking cleaver, trying to slice us in half. And we had to use soru, because otherwise, he WOULD have actually killed us.

"don't tell me it's the cleaver all over again..." jay said fearfully and started inching towards the fast travel station.

"oh, no no no no..." Lucard said assuring him ( and me ) with saying that. "you see, you'll be intercepting homing rocket launcher shots with your rokushiki's!" he shouted cheerfully and we paled even more at that. Tomorrow will be hell...

* * *

**That was the 3rd chappie of this story! sorry it takes me so long to update, but it's hard to come up with these training sessions. but once we get to the train station, and meet the other 6 vault hunters, ( yes, krieg will be there too. ) there will be updates more frequently and so on. this chapter is a bit short... sorry about that... but yeah, i'll start making the chapters longer once we get to "claptrap's place". have fun, my glorious readers!**


	4. Ripper

**sorry that i haven't been posting chapters for like... 3 weeks? ( i'm horrible... ) I've been pretty busy and I've written out 3 chapters now. this included. I don't really have a set 'time' as to when I'll upload a new chappie. I do it rather randomly, and I'm not the best of writer's so it, obviously, takes me quite some time to even write a chapter as short as this. But alas, I hope I can be forgiven for not posting in awhile. I wanted to post this like 4 days ago, but the file was deleted... my little brother deleted it 'accidentally', as he claims, which is probably plain BS knowing him.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my oc's. oh, and from this moment onwards, I'll just say *Disclaimer*, and that *Disclaimer* means that I own nothing except my oc's. yay.**

***IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT* I was wondering, do you guy want this to be both GaigexOC (Dante) and MayaxOC (Jay) or only GaigexOC(Dante)? I'll let y'all decide. **

**But yeah, here's the Fourth chapter of rokushiki using vault hunters. Enjoy. oh, and after this, chapter's will start coming like… once a week. because then this training stuff will be over, and I don't need to come up with everything. :3**

* * *

**Dante's P.O.V**

Two years have passed since our arrival here, and there's still one left. Me and Jay, we've already learnt five techniques of the Rokushiki: soru, kami-e, Rankyaku, tekkai and Shigan, and there's only Geppo and Rokuogan left, and we're good to go!

I'm currently just laying in my bed, with Jay sleeping in his own one a few feet away from me. We had been forced to make new beds because one year ago, Lucard broke the ones we had made about one and a half year ago.

I couldn't get sleep, because I was thinking about my past. About my left eye and it's scars.

_*flashback*_

_I stared in utter horror as the… thing in front of me stretched it's blood-stained claw behind his or her back, preparing to strike. I didn't even know if it was a human. But it wasn't something you see every day. This monster, this ABOMINATION was scaring the shit out of me. not even the best horror films could make me so scared and terrified._

"_w-why… WHY DID YOU KILL THEM?!" I shouted, feeling the anger overthrowing my terror, as I glared at the thing that stood over my parent's bodies. _

"_**simply because they knew too much. About my existence, about my abilities, about my curse. They took their research too far, and now, they paid the price." **__The thing said, still keeping it's hand up, ready to kill me in one swift slash._

"_**I don't need to kill you yet. But I'll give you this warning. Do not allow me to find you THERE. Currently, you do not know what I'm talking about. but in a few years you will. you'll get a vision about me. Or a dream. Whatever you wish to call it. **__it said, lowering…his hand. The voice was too deep for a woman._

"_B-But… their research never harmed anything! Neither did they! Right…? They- they wouldn't have hurt…anything…right?" I asked, feeling myself being torn as I recalled a conversation between mother and father. The conversation… it was about using humans… in some sorts of experimentations…_

"_**It seems your memory serves you correctly. Many I've even talked to have gone insane simply from looking at me. You have a strong will, brat. And to answer your question, your parent's were sick people, who wouldn't hesitate to kill, just to forward their experiments. So I murdered them." **__the thing said, once more raising it's hand up. Did I mention he had three very long NAILS on the hand? probably didn't._

"_but…but…you didn't have to kill them! You could've just talked them out of it! They… They aren't bad people! honestly!" I shouted, anger once more taking me over._

"_**Aren't? They're dead now, and there's nothing you can do about it. But that doesn't matter anymore. My time is up, but I'll give you something to remember me by. Something you can NEVER remove, and it will always taint you." **__The thing said, bringing it's arm down onto my eye and ripping it out of it's socket, but somehow avoiding my eyelids, and leaving behind three bloody lines over what was once my eye._

"_MY EYE! MY EYE! IT HURTS, IT HURTS!" I shouted and felt blood flowing out of my left eye and tears out of my right one as I collapsed onto the ground. __**"The next time we meet, I expect you to remember me. I will come for you, and if you cannot combat me then, I will make sure that every single human being that you feel love or compassion towards will die by my claw. And besides, you should be grateful I killed them. it was only a matter of time before they would've killed you too." **__the thing said, starting to walk away from me, as I felt darkness circling around me._

"_w-w-wait! what's your name!?" I shouted, and in my anger, refused to fall over until I knew this thing's name. I'd kill him. no matter what._

"_**I guess you could call me Ripper. For a lack of better name. Remember it." **__The now identified ripper said as I felt the darkness circling me encase my body in a shroud of blackness and emptiness, and I fell unconscious._

_*flashback ends*_

I couldn't resist shivering as the memory passed by. I still had nightmares from it, albeit they were only a yearly thing now, because Lucard has also trained us mentally.

"_I wonder if Lucard will teach us anything else except the rokushiki? Sure, he has taught us many things except them, for example, simple construction of bed's and other useful stuff like that, stealth, survivability, and much more." _ I thought to myself and walked towards the fast travel station.

"_I think I'll start the training for Geppo alone. it'll be a few hours before Lucard or Jay wake up, and I highly doubt they'd mind if I did so, anyways." _and with that, I laid my hand on the fast travel station and digistructed from the library into the pit.

* * *

***3 hours later***

"Why isn't it working? What is there that I am doing wrong?" I asked myself in a slight anger and stared calming down immediately. One of Lucard's teachings was to always remain calm, no matter the situation. And I refuse to just disregard the old man's teachings by just letting anger overtake me.

Both me and Jay had grown to respect the man, even if he tries to execute us now and then, but we both know he wouldn't really harm us too much intentionally. Hopefully, atleast, because he has his odd quirks of trying to beat us to bloody pulps every now and then.

"_Currently the Geppo is just failing. I'd need to administer enough speed and enough strength to kick off the air itself, but all I manage to do, is to jump upwards and send a spear-like Rankyaku down from the tip of my foot." _ I thought to myself and settled into the position me and Jay used when we still were learning how to do Soru. The position is still useful, but it takes too long to get into it, and therefore we never really use it.

"_But maybe I can use the position to help me with the Geppo?" _I thought and prepared my body to take off into the air, but just as I was about to try it, I felt a slight amount of killing intent coming behind me and decided to counter it, whatever it was. "Rankyaku!" I shouted, did a back-flip and kicked the air hard enough to send a compressed wind-blade towards the attacker and the attack, and watched as my Rankyaku connected with Lucards Tobu Shigan: Bachi. **(** **A/N: Tobu shigan: Bachi – Translates to Flying finger gun: Plectrum. It is a projectile version of the Shigan, that fires sharp, compressed air bullets from the fingers, slightly similar to the rankyaku. And instead of jabbing, like a normal shigan and all it's other variations, this is done by flicking. )**

"Tsk. Seems I wasn't able to hit you and get you out of training for today. Shame. And here I was already _dreaming _of being free from one of you pests. oh well." Lucard said, but without any real malice and so both of us knew he didn't really mean it, and was merely testing me. Then he just sat on top of a chair that me and Jay had been forced to make.

"Yo, Dante, seems like you started without me, damn bastard." Jay said as he used a Soru to appear next to me from god-knows-where and gave me a small friendly punch on my ribcage, whilst donning a huge smirk that he can't be seen without.

"Yeah, I did. Although i haven't really done any real progress yet, and I've only been making spear-like Rankyaku's, instead of Geppo's." I said and felt a small Rankyaku coming our way from Lucard. I let out a small sigh and hardened my body to a state of tekkai and took the compressed air-blade like it was nothing, but it still hurt. But that's understandable because Lucard has decades of experience under his belt, while we're just rookies with only two years done. And it was obvious he was holding a lot back.

"well, you're obviously doing something wrong then. Show me how you do it." Lucard said and rose from the bench and walked next to us. Letting out another sigh I kicked off the air in the similar way as before, but not using the stance of soru, like I had planned to. Once more, all I managed to do was a spear-like Rankyaku that left a few meter hole in the ground, storing that piece of information to the back of my mind. Perhaps it could be used as an effective attack.

"Dante, why are you using the tip of your foot? if I recall right from one of Lucard's lectures, you're supposed to use the whole bottoms of your feet for this technique." Jay said and settled himself onto a position similar to mine and tried to do the Geppo.

"_Holy shit he's actually doing it?! how the hell did he learn it so fas- oh nevermind." _I thought to myself in awe, but then he tried to make another jump with his other leg but he somehow… slipped in mid-air? that's the best way to explain it. But it was still one jump, and even that could be useful in a combat situation.

"hmm… Good, but you hesitated with that second jump. Why?" Lucard questioned from next to me as Jay laid in a few feet in front of me. I already know why that happened. But I'm not sure if the slip was actually his fault, but if it was due to his hesitation, then there's only one option as to why he did, really.

Jay muttered the answer, which I heard, but Lucard didn't. But I guess that's to be expected, considering Lucard is an old man, and his senses have very likely worsened over the years. "I'm scared of heights." he muttered, now louder, with a small blush on his face.

I let out a small laughter at that, dodging Jay's shoe as he threw it at my head. "shut up…" he muttered and planted his face in the sand/dust of the pit.

"Oh, is that so…?" Lucard questioned with a creepy tone and with a sadistic smirk etched on his face.

Both of us froze at that, even me, although it wasn't directed at me. Over these two years, Lucard has used that tone of voice only a few times, and only once has that smirk accompanied it. Both of us still have nightmares from those moments.

"well, if that's truly so, it seems we must somehow get rid of that fright, don't we…?" Lucard said eerily, used Soru to appear next to Jay, grabbed him by his waist, and started making his way into the sky with Geppo, still keeping Jay next to him.

"wait! Let me down! Please! I'm scared up here! Don't let me fall, don't let me fall, don't let me fall…" I heard him shout, and then he started chanting 'Don't let me fall'.

It was just too hilarious, and I laughed out loud once more, and dodging another shoe of Jay's as he threw it with the speed of a shigan. _"he shouldn't throw the shoes so much, or they'll break and Lucard will force us to make him another pair of them. And making these Rokushiki withstanding clothing isn't a fun-job." _I thought to myself and watched as Lucard was still going up with Jay still chanting 'Don't let me fall', but he wasn't saying it as much as he did before.

"well, I guess I can try to do it like Jay did…" I muttered to myself and settled myself into the position that Jay used a few minutes ago. _"Geppo." _I thought to myself and jumped up, kicking off the air once, and it actually worked! _"YEAH! oh shi-" _my train of thought was abruptly stopped as I forgot to keep kicking and face-planted onto the ground.

"_again"._

I jumped up once more, kicking off the air once, and this time NOT forgetting to kick off again, I kicked off the air another time. And felt myself stop immediately, as pain came to my leg, and I fell to the ground from about two to three meters in the air.

"it seems you've noticed the strain Geppo puts on your legs! Don't worry! it's supposed to happen, even after you've mastered Soru and Rankyaku!" Lucard shouted from up in the air, still using Geppo to remain in the air and trying to make Jay 'forget' his fear.

"_he's probably just giving him traumas by doing that…" _I thought to myself and decided to try the Geppo again. At least until I'm able to do atleast three jumps.

* * *

***8 Hours Later***

"WHY ARE YOU TWO STILL UP THERE?!" I shouted to the sky where I saw Lucard STILL holding Jay. And Jay just seems bored right now. "I THINK HE DOESN'T FEAR ANYMORE!" I shouted once more, and Lucard started coming down.

"well, I guess you're right. No point in doing this if he doesn't even get afraid anymore." Lucard said as he landed down a few feet away from me and set Jay down.

I had just stopped, after finally succeeding in making three continuous jumps. It was hellish in the start, but now I can do it, although barely. "Jay, you and I will train the Geppo for tonight! Dante you can go sleep now. And don't worry Jay, I'll let you sleep a double amount after this!" Lucard shouted as Jay groaned.

I just smiled at the spectacle and started making my way towards the fast travel station, and as I reached it, I laid my hand on top of it and digistructed to the library.

I collapsed onto the bed after a long day of training. Or well, to be more exact, fell onto it with grace. Although I fail to see how people can 'fall with grace', but that's just how Lucard had teached us to collapse. The old man just teaches us the weirdest of things.

"_Another long day passed. only 364 more left and we'll be off to meet the vault hunters! thing's will start getting interesting then. Not that they aren't now. We're facing death everyday when we train with Lucard, but I guess it's just too repetitive for my tastes." _ with that thought I let myself drift off to the nice, comfy land of dreaming. Or nightmares, if Lucard was in it.

* * *

I stared at him in horror. He hadn't appeared. not since then. Why now? How? it makes no sense.

"R-ripper…?" I asked, trying to escape the small room I and ripper were in. We were pretty much stuck together and in such a small place… not good.

"**it seems you remember my name, brat. You've definitely grown since last time. How long has it been now? six years? seven? Doesn't matter. I've come to give you a message." **Ripper said and made his way towards me.

"what do you want…?" I asked and took a fighting stance Lucard had taught me and Jay that would be effective when used together with Rokushiki.

"**Nothing just yet. You're not ready, or to be more exact, your soul isn't hardened enough for me. It's such a shame. But in any case, you will see me in exactly one year and half a month. Expect me then, and once you're ready… I will devour your soul." **Ripper said, appearing in front of me with impressive speed and slightly grazing my left eye with his claw.

I was frozen due to the aura Ripper was emitting. It was clear that he WANTED to kill me right here. But it was as if he couldn't do it just yet.

"**Rest for now brat. For you won't be having many decent nights anymore." **Ripper said, giving out an eerie laughter and disappearing in an odd indigo colored mist.

I woke up covered in Cold sweat and staring at the roof of the library. Only one thing was passing throught my mind. Ripper was coming. And he was out for Flesh and Blood. And that flesh and blood is mostly mine. Aw fuck...

* * *

**Well, that's the fourth chapter. Like i said, i'm sorry that i haven't uploaded faster, but now i'll start making it a weekly thing! promise!**

**In any case, i wish y'all a good night/day/evening or whatever it is at your country at the moment. Bye~**


	5. Stalking the six vault hunter's

**Hello everyone! fifth chapter of rokushiki using vault hunters!**

**I said last chapter that I'd be uploading one chapter each week… sheesh. Spend your review's on something else than "uplood teh chapthurzz!" please? anything else, please. suggestions, questions… I don't know. something.**

**but yeah in any case here's the disclaimer: *Disclaimer here.* CBA to actually write everything I don't own. but any sane person over there knows what I own and what I don't. :3**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Jay's P.O.V**

it's been three long, long years now. And both me and Dante have learnt all the techniques of rokushiki. It was hard as hell, but we made it. Somehow, we made it. And we're now ready to leave.

"So, you brat's are leaving now, are you?" Lucard asked us as we started walking towards the fast travel station. We we're currently in the library, dressed in these pitch-black suits that Lucard gave us a few days ago. They were rather simple suits too, thankfully. Just black dress shoes which are reinforced to withstand the techniques better, black straight pants and black suit jackets that have these rather big collars on them. They cover half of our faces, all the way to the nose, black caps and black gloves. **( A/N if you want to know how the outfits exactly look, then here's a link for a picture: *edit* stupid fanfiction site... :( oh well. there's a link for the picture in my profile, go check it out. )  
**

"yup." me and Dante said at the same time, and all three of us laid our hands on top of the fast travel station and digistructed to the "Train station" as it was called.

"you brats better visit me every now and then… an old man like me gets lonely very quickly." Lucard said as he sat down on a bench on the station. Albeit it couldn't even be called a station, I guess… it only had two benches, the fast travel station and two of the vending machines, a Marcus munitions and Zed's Meds.

"sure, sure. But I guess it'll take awhile before we'll visit… I wanna see the Sanctuary and meet all the other vault hunters… maybe piss off Jack enough to give us both a nice bounty." Dante said as he too sat down.

"agreed… you guys say when the train comes, I'll lay down for the time being." I said and tried to sleep on the other bench. "…never mind. These benches are far too hard." i muttered to myself, but still remained laying on the very hard bench.

"sure thing, Jay." Dante said from the other bench where he and Lucard were sitting on. "Dante, Jay, before you two go, I want to give you this." Lucard said and pulled out a book from his robes.

"a book?" Dante asked, although it was more like a statement. _"why do we need a book?" _I asked myself and checked the clock from my echo device. Lucard had given us both one a few days ago. _"Still ten minutes before the train's here…" _

"yes, a book. I might have taught you two the traditional forms of rokushiki, but there's so many variations of the techniques that it would've taken me atleast four years more to teach them all to you brats." Lucard said as he handed the book over to Dante.

"_ah yes, indeed, there were actually lot's of different variations… some of them really cool, too. Like the flying finger gun." _I thought to myself and sat up. Whoever managing these stations should really invest in some sort of bench softeners.

"oh! the train's coming!" Dante shouted and jumped up from the bench he was sitting on and ran to the spot where the train would stop.

"so it seems…" I said and rose from the other bench, strolled behind him and watched as the train slowed down to a stop.

"now then, you two… I expect you to visit me atleast a few times a year! got it?!" Lucard shouted as we started getting into the train.

"YEAH!" both of us shouted at the top of our voices as the train door closed behind us.

* * *

"well, what now?" I asked from Dante AND myself when the train started moving and we waved at Lucard who was digistructing. Probably to go to the library or the pit.

"well… should we wait for the other vault hunters to get here? Or maybe they are here already?" Dante asked as he sat down. I walked to him and sat next to him.

"They might already be here. Who knows? But I suggest we remain here until they come, considering this is nearly the first carriage, and they're bound to pass by." I said and started toying around with the cap that was part of the outfit we we're wearing.

"true that… Well, I'll try to get some sleep, considering I really didn't get any sleep last night, because Lucard kept pummeling us…" Dante said, closing his eyes and relaxing himself slightly, but still ready to attack anything, that might be a threat to us, in only a second, because that's how good Lucard made us.

"you're jealous of my multi-tasking abilities, aren't you?" I asked and held back a slight chuckle, thinking back to last night when Lucard has his last training session with us.

"it's not fair that you can actually fight and train whilst sleeping… how the hell do you even do that?" Dante asked, readying himself for the on-coming hyperion attack, even if he still was trying to sleep.

"I don't know… I just learned it somehow after the first year. Makes stuff, oh so much easier." I said as I decided to check out the next carriage, but then I remembered something.

"wait… from what I recall from the intro cutscene, wasn't the massive pile or explosive's in one of the first carriages? And weren't the vault hunters way back there, too. Not here in the front, right?" I asked as I started making my way to the back of the train.

"now that you mention it… Yeah, they were in the back. Not in the fro-" Dante never finished his sentence because the whole train was wrecked with a huge explosion.

_***KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOM***_

"Well, shit." I muttered to myself as the carriage we were in fell off the rails… or rail.

"Let's get the hell out of this thing!" I heard Dante shout from somewhere and heard the distinct wooshing sound that Soru gives off. _"well, he's getting out with soru. I can't do that though, too much debris around me… oh, wait, there's a hole in the roof." _I thought to myself and noticed the convenient hole that had formed into the roof of the carriage at some point. "Geppo!" I shouted to myself and kicked off the air, making my way out of the carriage.

"oh, there you are! I thought you got caught in there…" Dante said as I noticed him using soru and arriving next to me. "like hell… you won't get rid of me THAT easily." I mumbled and noticed we were in a snowy area.

"how fast does that train move? The place we came onboard the train was nothing but desert!" I shouted and started making my way towards a random direction.

"don't know. But this is Pandora, so I guess it's normal here." Dante said and started walking next to me.

"yeah, I guess… Hey, can you do that "detecting" thing of yours?" I asked after we had walked for awhile. _"I want an epic life-force noticing skill like that, too… but I do have my multi-tasking though… oh whatever." _i thought to myself and waited for an answer.

"sure! Just hold on a second…" he shouted and muttered the last part as he sat down on the snow and did this odd meditating pose. "There's… four… five… six of them?" He said after a few minutes of him doing his life detecting.

"six? well, it seems that the Mechromancer and the Psycho have joined the original gang of four. Let's get moving then… How far away are they from us?"

"They're a rough one mile to the north… if I'm correct, claptrap still hasn't found them, considering they seem to be unconscious." Dante said as we started making our way towards north, with him leading us.

"I see… By the way, how do you know which direction IS north?" I asked after a minute of contemplating. _"I mean seriously, it is odd…"_

"well, because I can detect life in a radius of three miles, I somehow have a built-in-compass of sorts in me too. No idea why, but it's really usefu-" Dante said and suddenly stopped in mid-sentence.

"what's wrong?" I asked immediately, preparing myself for a fight, if one was to come. "…Nothing much. They're just waking up now, and they've started moving." Dante said after a moment.

"alright, let's use Soru to catch up to them, shall we? Walking is rather boring, too… **Soru!**" I said, as I used soru to move at blinding speed. _"no need to worry about Dante… he'll catch up." _ just when I finished thinking that, he appeared right next to me, also using Soru to move really fast.

"Hey, don't leave me behind like that, damn it!" He shouted slightly with a childish pout, which I cracked a smirk at.

"oh… can't keep up, can you?" I asked teasingly, knowing that he could keep up, and even outrun me, considering he was faster, but I was stronger.

"of course I can! who do you think you're talking to? I'm the faster out of us." He said, taking on a slightly sarcastic tone, which he always took on if the conversation he was having was amusing to him.

"and yet, you're slower than an old man long past his prime…" I muttered under my breath, but made sure to keep my voice loud enough for him to hear.

"Hey! Lucard is a freaking beast in both speed and strength! You wouldn't believe someone as old as him could be so fast and strong." He said just as we stopped using Soru and noticed that we had already arrived at claptrap's place. It was actually more interesting and funky looking than what the game interpreted.

"so, we're here… Are they inside? Or are they battling Knuckledragger and the other weaker bullymongs already?" I asked after a moment of thinking whether to go in, or remain out of their field of vision for the time being.

"Give me a moment…" Dante muttered and sat down on the snow once more. "sure, take as long as you need." I said and sat down on a pile of scrap-metal that was outside the little annoyance's place.

"…They seem to be fighting currently, but it seems that they're having problems. Only Zero, Krieg and Salvador seem to be fighting." Dante said after a moment. _"well, that's not good. Wonder what's the problem there." _I thought to myself absentmindedly.

"shall we go and assist our fellow vault hunters then? Whatever it is they're having problems with, I'm sure we can help in a way or another." I said and started walking inside claptrap's place.

"sure, why not?" Dante muttered, rose from the snow and started walking after me to the annoying robot's place.

* * *

"well isn't this interesting..." i muttered to myself, but it seems that Dante heard it too. "agreed. It seems that Claptrap only had one handgun in that cabinet of his." Dante said as we stared at the six vault hunter's fighting against the bullymongs, or four of them, to be exact. Zero, Krieg and Salvador were fighting using close combat and Axton was using the handgun to fight from afar, and the other's just couldn't do anything.

"Didn't they lose their action skills for some time at first after the explosion on the train?" i asked, although it was more of a rhetorical question, but still. "i think they did. Shall we join in the party?" Dante asked. We were currently standing at the ledge overlooking frostbite crevasse, and it was actually slightly humorous to watch as the one's who couldn't do anything were scrambling around, trying to keep out of the way of the one's who could do something.

"well, i guess we could help them out. But let's remain out of sight for now... Let's use Geppo to get to a place where they can't see us, but where we can use the flying finger gun... hopefully, we'll be able to do it straight off the bat." i said after a minute of contemplating.

"alright... how about there?" Dante asked, pointing at the huge cliff across the small valley where the other's were fighting at. "that seems to be a nice spot for it... let's get there quickly though. i highly doubt the other vault hunter's will notice us, but Zero is a slight threat there, considering he's the most attentive of the six." i said after awhile, and started using the Geppo to get really high into the air, and started slowly moving towards the cliff that Dante had pointed out for us.

_"Is he coming or not?" _i thought to myself and took a glance over my shoulder and saw that Dante was following me, but he was reading the technique variation book that Lucard gave us, presumably searching for the flying finger gun.

"here we are..." i muttered to myself and watched as Dante landed right next to me. "here it is. it doesn't seem too complicated, let me test it out." He said after giving me the book and positioning his hands. His right hand's thumb and index finger ready for a flicking motion, but instead of the finger's facing down-ward, they were facing up-wards, and his left hand was keeping a tight hold on his wrist.

"There's one sneaking up on Maya, try it at that one." I said quietly, because the snow-storm was starting to calm down, and our voice's might be heard now.

"alright. i'll try the **Tobu shigan: Hibachi(1)**variation." he said and took aim at the bullymong that seemed to be smarter than the one's attacking head-on. "the fire version huh? alright." i muttered and watched him release the flick he was preparing. "**Tobu Shigan: Hibachi.**" he muttered lowly, and we both watched as the bullymong that had been sneaking up on Maya writhed in pain as it's neck caught on fire from the fire-variation of the flying finger gun.

"seems to work just fine for you. make sure it's dead and fire another one at it, whilst i quickly go through the technique." i said and started reading the book of rokushiki variations.

"works for me." Dante said quietly and fired another 'Flying finger gun: Fire plectrum' at the bullymong that was starting to slowly die from the first **Hibachi**. It was also really amusing to watch the vault hunter's shocked face's when the Bullymong shouted in agony from an attack that none of them did.

"well, this isn't as hard as it look's like... it's just using the friction part that seems slightly harder than using the regular **Tobu** **Shigan**." i muttered and gave Dante back the book and positioned my hands the same way as Dante had them, and took aim at Knuckledragger. He was rather easy to spot, considering he was bigger than the rest of the Bullymongs and had Claptrap's eye around his neck.

"**Tobu Shigan: Hibachi**." i said to myself and fired at Knuckledragger not once, not twice, but three times, causing it to kneel over and die on the spot. The face's of the Vault hunter's were priceless. "i wish we were down there to see their faces properly. It'd be fun as hell to see their expressions, except Zero's, of course, considering he always has that helmet, suit and monotone robotic voice." Dante said from next to me.

"A hiding helper/Fire falling from the sky/Is it a demon?" Zero's monotone voice said from the crevasse as he spoke in haiku. I could see his head turning around and trying to locate us after he and Krieg finished the two remaining Bullymong's.

"well, whatever it is, it doesn't seem to have anything against us... so let's get a move on, before we are targeted." Axton said as he too tried to locate us. Then his eye's locked with mine for a moment and his widened.

"let's move." i said to Dante and used Soru to move out of his field of vision with Dante following close behind.

"There! There was two men on the cliff!" Axton started shouting and pointing at the cliff that we once stood at. Too bad for him that we had used Soru and crossed the area and were currently standing at the other side of the cliff's.

"there's nothing there though..." Maya said as she took a look at the place we had once been at. "They disappeared! there seriously was two guy's up there, i swear!" he shouted and we could see him trying to locate us, but failing at it.

"well, whatever 'twas, if they're not here to kill us, we've nothin' to worry 'bout." Salvador's gruff voice said from down below as they started moving towards the southern shelf, to find sir hammerlock who would fix claptrap's eye. Or more like shove it in place...

_"krieg and gaige haven't said anything yet." _i thought to myself as i studied their movements and watched them go to the place where they'll get a shotgun, and where Claptrap fucks the door up and make's angel open it for the vault hunter's instead. But gladly, we can use Geppo to move over the icy cliff-face's and reach southern shelf using our own means.

"let's go to the southern shelf then." Dante said as he started using Geppo after we saw the vault hunter's enter the following area. "yeah. I want to remain out of their sight's until the battle with boom and bewm. or until they fight flynt. But we'll show ourselves before they board claptrap's ship, alright?" i questioned after i started using Geppo and following Dante.

"Sure, and it'll be fun to see their reaction's when we show up and tell them that we did that to knuckledragger and the other bullymong." he said as we landed on top of the cliff between frostbite crevasse and southern shelf.

"true... let's go to the place where they battle boom and bewm to wait for them, alright?" i said and used Geppo once more to start moving towards the huge place that flynt had command over.

"alright! can we battle some bandit's whilst on the way there? please?" Dante slightly begged whilst we remained high in the air and eventually landed on the icy cliff that oversaw the area where boom and bewm we're located. The bandit gate that the vault hunter's will smash with the big bertha was also under us.

"sorry, but nope. We'll join the vault hunter's first, then we'll fight." i said with finality in the tone of my voice. "fine... you killjoy." Dante muttered and sat down and prepared for the slight wait that would come, because the vault hunter's were probably meeting up with sir hammerlock at the moment... and they might even do some of the sidequest's too before going for flynt and claptrap's ship.

_"The joy and pleasure of waiting."_ i thought to myself and started thinking about taking a nap before they arrive... why not?

* * *

**(1) Flying finger gun: fire plectrum. :3**

**That's the fifth chapter for you! please review amongst other things!**

**Buh-bye!**


	6. Claptrap's ship

**Hello all of you people!**

***insert disclaimer here***

**this story reached 1000 views! yay! I'm so proud of y'all, but I'd appreciate more reviews… oh well, who cares about what I appreciate and what I don't, but you could review. pwease?**

**and this chapter was one day late! sorry, I'm busy a lot nowadays. :S**

**anyhow, sixth chapter. hope you enjoy.**

* * *

**Dante's P.O.V**

well, it took them a rough three hours to get here. Seriously? THREE HOURS? _'well, I guess the time passes differently now that we're actually in here, and not just sitting on a couch and playing with the real six vault hunters.' _I thought to myself and absentmindedly played with a small lock of my hair as me and Jay watched the vault hunter's battle with Boom and Bewm… and with the psycho's that seem to be appearing out of nowhere.

"…At what point should we show ourselves? here? Or with Flynt perhaps? Or make a dramatic entrance at claptrap's ship?" I asked, still observing the battle, and watched as the midget yellow shotgunner, Bewm, was beheaded by Zero's katana.

"well, I guess it'd seem like a dick move to just pop up at the ship and ask to join their group of vault hunters after THEY fought all of those bandit's off, so, we'll be appearing at the battle with Flynt." Jay said as we watched Boom jump off Big Bertha and try to combat the vault hunter's with only an assault rifle… a bad mistake, in my opinion.

"It wouldn't seem like a dick move. It'd BE a dick move." I said and started using Geppo to move across the air towards Flynt's domain, with Jay following close behind. The fight ended with Krieg burying his buzz axe in Boom's head, Axton blowing up the gate, and the rest of the vault hunter's dealing with the bandit's that came from the gate afterwards. Then they made their way towards Flynt's ship too.

* * *

"Let's wait here." I muttered silently. Why silently? Because we we're behind Flynt's thone, but gladly, he had no idea we we're there.

"yeah… or should we just kill Flynt now? It'd be easier that way, if you ask me." Jay said, pulling his leg back for a Rankyaku. "why not? Might as well." I said, also preparing to make a rankyaku.

"**Rankyaku!**" we shouted simultaneously and cut both Flynt and his throne vertically and horizontally, and watched as his body and throne fell down in nicely cut slices. "well, that was… non-eventful. I was hoping he'd sense our attacks and dodge them epically, resulting in us getting a decent fight." I said, jumping down from the place where Flynt had once sat at, with Jay following close behind.

"agreed. I feel slightly betrayed… But I guess it can't be helped." Jay said, starting to kick parts of flynt's throne down from his ship.

"wonder how long it'll take for the vault hunter's to get here?" I asked, starting to kick Flynt's bodyparts down from the ship. _'we should've made those rankyaku's differently… Then, I'd be able to bounce Flynt's head like a football, if it was still completely intact.' _I thought to myself as we kicked the last pieces of Flynt and his throne all the way down to the icy waters that rested below.

"I don't know, they might be here in ten seconds, they might be here in one hour, who knows?" Jay muttered as he leaned against one of the boxes that were set randomly around us.

"who are you two?" asked a female voice from roughly fifteen meters behind us. It took all of my self-restraint to not to send a Rankyaku at the voice due to my reflexes.

both of us turned slowly around and saw them there, the six vault hunters, staring at us like they had never seen humans kick pirate body parts down a huge ship. Well… they probably hadn't, but you get my point. Hopefully.

"…Name's Dante. The guy leaning on the box is Jay… Who're you?" I asked, taking on my pokerface and keeping my voice monotone.

"I'm gaige, the siren is Maya, the guy with the blue hair and beard is Salvador, soldier-boy over there's called Axton, the Psycho's name is Krieg, and the guy in the armor is called Zero." Gaige said as she started making her way towards us, but Axton grabbed her shoulder, keeping her in place.

"hey, what's up, soldier-boy?" Gaige asked and turned towards Axton who was studying us with narrowed eyes. "These guys were at the cliff when we fought against knuckledragger and the other bullymongs. I told you I saw somebody." Axton said whilst the other vault hunter's absorbed this information with varying levels of surprise and Krieg was muttering something about being the conductor of the poop train.

"true, we indeed were there. You should be glad. We did take out two bullymongs for you." Jay said as he stopped leaning against the box, and instead jumped on top of it and sat on it.

"But amigo's, you don't have any weapons, not even shields! An' yet, we saw you kickin' Flynt's bodyparts down from this ship. How'd you kill him?" Salvador asked, also studying us, probably trying to see if we are hiding guns and shields somewhere.

"a gun isn't needed to pierce the human body." I said, being all mysterious and letting out a small chuckle and deciding to hide our techniques for now. But I guess we'll have to reveal them at one point.

"indeed. you just need to have something moving at similar speed as a bullet." Jay said from his position on top of the box. He had actually opened the box and was going through it now.

"You beat Flynt? Great! Then we can take my ship and head to Sanctuary, and you two can be my minions too! Aren't you lucky?" Claptrap's ever-so-cheery voice shouted as the little robot made it's way towards us.

i couldn't resist raising my eyebrow at that. "minion? sorry, robot, but we're no-one's minions. But if you want, we can accompany you to this Sanctuary place, considering we have nothing else to do." I said as I watched Claptrap open the door that led to his ship.

"wait, how can we trust these two?" Maya asked after Salvador and Gaige had started making their way towards the ship, and the other vault hunter's still remaining at the same spot where they were when this conversation started.

"well, you can't. But you six have weapons and shields, whilst we only have one measly digistructing katana each. So we can't exactly trust you guys either, and yet, we don't care about those facts at all." Jay said as he started reading a book that he had found inside the box. Why the hell do bandits need books anyway? Probably to burn them for heat, if anything…

"I also hold one/an assassin's katana/it too, digistructs." Zero said as he took the hilt of his katana from his hip, the blade instantly digistructing. "That's a nice shade of blue… Mine's Jet black, whilst Jay's is Blood-red." I said, also taking out my blade. Both of us stood there for a moment, until we simultaneously disappeared in a blur of speed, me using Soru, and Zero actually keeping up with Soru's speed somehow, until we clashed blades, creating an outlining of a dust circle floating around us.

"a worthy challenge/your partner, is he skilled too/I love challenges." Zero said, or asked, in his monotonous metallic voice, using his regular haiku, as we both put away our katana's after measuring our strength against each other.

"yeah, I'm skilled alright, but I'm stronger than Dante, but slower and not as agile as he is." Jay said as he took the book he was reading and headed over to claptrap's ship. To my surprise, everyone but me, Jay and zero was already on the ship.

"Jay's right, he's stronger, I'm faster." I confirmed and made my way to the ship with zero next to me. "I request a fight/duel between assassins/I'll fight both of you" Zero said in his metallic voice as we boarded claptrap's ship.

"sure. But let's wait until we reach land though. It'd be annoying if we wrecked the ship and had to swim the rest of the trip to Three horns – divide." I said and decided to take a nap on the ships deck.

* * *

**Jay's P.O.V**

'_Well, we're now with the other vault hunters. They probably don't trust us very much, but Zero seems to have taken a liking towards fighting, or sparring, with Dante. Even if it was only a quick measurement of strength.' _I thought to myself and sat down on the deck whilst reading the book I picked up from that one box at flynt's ship. It was an interesting book called: "Multiple Mutilating Murder Techniques". Guess bandit's do read something.

"Hi there." a female voice, which I recognized as Maya's, said from next to me. Lowering my book I saw her sitting right next to me. "greetings, Maya. what is it?" I asked, still keeping my voice monotone, but allowing a small smile to take it's place on my face.

"I was wondering how you killed Flynt. We six could've overwhelmed him in a few minutes, but you two didn't break a sweat doing it. so how?" Maya asked, raising an eyebrow.

I couldn't help but chuckle inwardly. "we we're behind Flynt for a few minutes. The kill was really non-eventful, and I hoped he could've dodged our attacks and given us even a decent fight, but in the end, he couldn't even sense our attacks coming, so he fell in two swift strikes. Stealth is always good, I guess." I finished with shrugging my shoulder's slightly.

"I see… how did you get up there without him or any of the bandit's noticing?" she asked, sounding sincere, but there was an ulterior motive. She's probably trying to understand how we combat with just swords against a bunch of bandits. "we sneaked and climbed mostly. Not really hard, but climbing the back of Flynt's ship was rather annoying." i lied smoothly and returned to the interesting book i was reading.

"aww, c'mon, be more specif-" Maya started saying, but was quickly cut off by Claptrap. "Hey, minions! we'll be at three horns in a few hours, so just calm down, relax and worship me!" Everyone just ignored him and got back to what each and everyone was doing. I'm reading this book, Dante's napping, Gaige is... also napping? and her head was on Dante's shoulder. _'i didn't even notice her going there...i'll need to start being more perspective, but it doesn't matter for now.' _i thought to myself and kept on checking what everyone else was doing. Salvador and Axton were cleaning their guns, Zero was training with his katana and deception. Guess they finally got their action skills back.

"...what the hell is Krieg doing?" i asked and watched as the Psycho in question was throwing his buzz axe into the air and catching it, and throwing it again, and catching it, and repeating this process. It wouldn't have been weird, but the fact that he did it whilst having tied himself onto the boat and going with the flow, so to say, and then throwing the buzz axe into the air and catching it, and repeating the process.

"Spending time, i guess. There's not much to do for a few hours, and even madmen get bored." Maya said, letting out a small yawn. "i haven't slept for two days now... Mind if i take a nap here?" she asked, laying her head onto my shoulder. i was slightly shocked, although my face didn't betray my emotions. "not at all. i'll probably sleep for awhile too." i said, but she had already fallen asleep.

"oh... how did she fall asleep so quick?" i asked myself, putting a finger in between pages 73 and 74 of the book i had been reading, and closing my eyes and trying to fall asleep. After about fifteen minutes, i succeeded, and was sent to the world of dreams.

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**well, that's that. Sorry that this was one day late. i was busy... also, it's a rather short chapter... But i'll make the next one 4000 words long, i guess. In any case, have fun with life and so on.**

**anyhow, hope you enjoyed, please favourite, review, etc.**


	7. Firehawk

**seventh chapter! sorry that i tend to update at the end of the week, but i don't exactly spend most of my time on the computer, so i'll usually update on the weekends. But next week, I'll have to update before the weekend. Be happy! and please review, would you? and not just saying 'good work' etc. But an actual, long-ish review, questions, and stuff like that... but yeah.**

***disclaimer here***

**in any case, enjoy.**

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**Dante's P.O.V**

as we arrived at the Three horns divide, we started making our way towards the catch-a-ride station that was nearby, with angel helping us. _'I thought she'd keep herself hidden from us… but I guess not.' _were my thoughts when she insisted on communicating with us. That was two hours ago, and now we're making our way towards the sanctuary after obtaining the power core that Bloodshot bandit's had taken from Cpl. Reiss. I didn't use any rokushiki moves yet, and neither did Jay. We had agreed that we'd use them if it became absolutely necessary, although we use'd soru and kami-e, without anyone else, except maybe Zero, noticing.

We arrived shortly at the sanctuary and made our way towards Scooter's workshop. He was sitting on a regular stool, with his feet propped up on a pile of tires. '_Just like I remember him from the game.'_ I thought to myself and listened what he was going to say as he started talking, even though I knew what he was going to say before even coming here.

"oh, crap, is you hyperion? I heard all of you are robots and eat metal out of the garbage and stuff. Knew you wired death-machines would be coming for me once Roland went missing. Now, if you're here to kill me, you should probably know…" Scooter said as he jumped on top of the stack of tires his feet had been resting on. "You'll never take me alive you robotic sumbitch!" He finished and finally looked at all of us properly.

"wait a minute… Well, hang me upside-down from a telephone pole cover me in honey and leave me to a slow death at the hands of hungry spider-ants, you ain't no robots! You're Vault hunters! That's like a bunch of unicorns!" He said and made his way off from the pile of tires he was standing on. we all just remained silent as he kept on babbling.

"So y'all gonna help us out with this whole Roland situation? Roland said that if he ever disappeared, I were to intiate 'Plan B.' Or as I like to call it, Plan Turn-this-city-into-a-floatin'-ass-fortress-of-air borne-awesomeness. B." he said and I started recalling the locations of the fuel cells, which Scooter's going to make us get soon. One's on our left, next to the car and on the shelf, another one is upstairs on one of the several shelves, and the last one we must buy from Earl.

"I got some fuel cells around here. You'll need those – oh, and you'll need this Eridium here too." Scooter said as he handed us four Eridium bars, which I took, because I was closest to him. I also started making my way upstairs, knowing that the second cell would be there.

"well, let's find those cells, I guess." Jay said and made his way towards the one on the shelf next to the broken down car. He took it and asked Scooter if that was it and when he got a 'Yeah' as a response, then I took the other fuel cell and showed it to the other's down below. "Found it." I said and made my way down.

"Head to the center a' town and plug those two fuel cells into the ignition primers. You gon' need a third, which is why I gave you that there rid-rock – you can buy the last cell from Earl's black market. Careful though, Earl's crazy – he ate one of my cars once. Yeah. The whole car. Just with, like, a fork." Scooter said and made his way towards the broken down car, taking out an odd toolkit, whilst we made our way towards the center of the town to plug in the first two fuel cells.

"alright, we can put the the two cells into place, you six go and buy the last one." I said to the other vault hunter's as me and Jay started making our way towards the ignition primers. I went to the one closer to the Crimson raider's headquarters, whilst Jay took the one next to the quest board. Once we had plugged them simultaneously, Scooter started speaking through our Echo communicator's. Claptrap had given us both one earlier, said he found eight of them… how convenient.

"Roland said we gotta have an exit strategery just in case he ever disappeared, hence all the fuel cells and whatnot. Bummer, though – he really wanted to meet y'all. Raider's ain't gonna last without some new blood, and given how you shot them bandits up I'd say y'all and blood got an extra-special relationship. Like cousins takin' a bath together." Scooter said, just as the six vault hunter's came back from Earl's black market, with Axton taking the final fuel cell and plugging it in the final ignition primer.

"Hey, thanks for grabbin' all that stuff for me. Third degree burns are best taken in shifts. Now, to see the fruits of your loins – this city's gonna FLY!" scooter spoke through the echo communicator's once more, and we watched as the… well, whatever the hell that thing in the middle of the sanctuary is, glowed slightly teal and then we heard an electric sound, similar to something shutting down after being put under too much pressure.

"…or, not. Damn. Well, now we REALLY gotta find Roland. You know what – Maybe get to Roland's place. I think he mighta left a message there for ya." Scooter, again, spoke through the echo communicator's we all had, and with that said, we made our way towards Roland's place, as told.

"Vault hunters! Get in! Roland left a message for ya." A crimson raider said and gave us a key, which Salvador took, and opened the door to the crimson raider's headquarters. Dr. Patricia Tannis was sleeping on one of the bunk beds when we noticed the echo recorder on the table. Krieg took it, muttering something about raw steak and meat bicycle's as he started the echo recorder.

"Hey, soldiers. If you're hearing this, I'm in trouble. Right now, you're the only things standing between this city – hell, the whole planet – and Handsome Jack's army. I left info about my whereabouts in my safe. You can use it to store anything you need – this is your home, now, good luck." and the recording ended. By the time it did, Salvador, Axton and Zero had started lounging about, with Salvador and axton trying out the Bunk beds and Zero leaning against the wall being all cool and casual.

"To the safe it is." I muttered making my way upstairs, and seeing the huge-ass safe that was positioned there. It was even bigger than what it looked like in the game. After opening it, we found another echo recorder, with 'We' being me, Jay, Gaige and Maya, because the other's had remained downstairs.

"This is the firehawk. Come to Frostburn canyon or people will die." Came a deep, slightly metallic voice from the echo recorder once we activated it. And somehow, Scooter had heard the thing and then he started panicking.

"The Firehawk? You mean the mass-murderin' bounty hunter?! Oh, crap – if the Firehawk's got him, Roland's in DEEP! You gotta get to Frostburn canyon and rescue his ass!" Scooter shouted over the Echo communicator as the four of us currently upstairs made our way down.

Immediately after that, Angel started speaking. She hadn't spoken in awhile. "If Roland has been captured by the Firehawk, he's in danger. You eight are the only one's who can stop Jack, but Roland is the man with the plan, so to speak – he knows the best way to strike at hyperion."

Well, time to make our way to Frostburn Canyon then, but first, everyone will probably want to buy some guns... and check out Sanctuary properly before leaving.

* * *

After buying guns, we made our way towards the exit of sanctuary. Me, Jay and Zero bought sniper rifles and pistol's of different kinds. Salvador and Axton bought assault rifles and shotguns, and Salvador bought two launcher's, too. Maya got herself a pistol and an Maliwan SMG with shock attributes. Gaige didn't have too much money, so i bought her an assault rifle and an SMG. She then bought herself a pistol as a back-up. Krieg got himself two launcher's, nothing else. _'Not that i or Jay would need weapons anyway... But it'll be fun to snipe unaware bandits in the head.' _i thought to myself as we made our way out of the sanctuary.

We arrived outside the Frostburn canyon rather quickly, and the area had some bandit's patrolling. A rough ten to fifteen of them. Me, Jay, Axton, Salvador and Zero were thinking up a plan to take them out as effectively as possible. _'In the game there was no planning, just storming in and killing everybody. But alas, i prefer planning anyway.' _i thought to myself and started listening properly, because i had been playing with an odd earring i had gotten myself earlier, who knew that there were actually tattooists and piercing makers in Sanctuary? In any case, the earring was a dice on a black string on my left ear.

"Alright, here's my plan: First, Salvador and Krieg go in, guns blazing, with me following them shortly. Then the girls-" Axton was cut off by Maya. "girls, Axton?" she 'asked' with a small glare directed at Axton. "...Ladies. the ladies will enter the area after i throw down my turret. Meanwhile, Zero, Dante and Jay will snipe anyone who gets too close for comfort. Is this good for everyone?" Axton asked as we made our way towards the entrance. All of us agreed with the plan. Me and Jay because we didn't want to show everyone our Rokushiki skills just yet. Before we had left Sanctuary, we had decided to show them once we were forced to.

"alright! let's kick some ass!" me and Gaige shouted at the same time, but still keeping our voice's down so that the bandit's wouldn't hear us, and i stared at her whilst she just gave me a confused look.

so, in a few minutes, salvador and Krieg ran in, with axton following shortly. Salvador gunzerking, Krieg slicing people with his Buzz axe and Axton throwin down his turret, which was the sign for the ladies to enter the field. Gaige summoned Deathtrap immediately and Maya started Phaselocking enemies. Me, Jay and Zero started sniping the bandits, and in a few minutes, all of them were dead and none of us received much damage.

"To the Frostburn Canyon it is." Jay said and with that, we made our way inside the Frostburn Canyon

* * *

Once we entered the area, angel started speaking again: "The Firehawk should be around here somewhere. Stay alert." as we went a little bit farther, we noticed a few bloodshot's running past the area, so we hid for about fifteen seconds as we watched them pass by. "That's weird - The bloodshot bandit clan seems to be attacking Firehawk's lair. They've probably left landmarks for their reinforcements - those should lead you to the Firehawk... That, or just... Follow the screaming." Angel spoke through the Echo communicator's once more. THEN this bandit guy, Flanksteak, i think his name was, started speaking to us.

"Step off, Vault hunters - this is between the Bloodshots and the Firehawk! Once my boys bring his ass back to me, he's gonna pay for every Bloodshot he killed! We're gonna string him up from his own freakin' intestines!" He said and cut the connection. For now, that is. "Well, that was... Needlessly graphic." Angel said a moment after Flanksteak had shut up, and i couldn't help but smile at her. She seems so innocent.

After that little chatting session, we made our way towards the first bloodshot sign and headed downwards to where the entrance towards Firehawk was. After a few moments of combat and murder, because of more fucking bandits, we found the second bloodshot sign. And then Angel spoke once more. "This is unusual - the Firehawk has harrassed the Bloodshots for some time, but they have never mounted such a large-scale assault on the Firehawk before. I wonder what's given them such confidence?"

And then Flanksteak started babbling. Again. "Keep goin, Bloodshots! That demonic... THING will rue the goddamn day it messed with us! We're gonna make the Firehawk choke to death on his own feces!" At that, i wrinkled my nose a bit in distaste at the odd way of killing, the girls made gagging noises whilst axton and Jay looked mildly disturbed, Salvador laughed at the comment and Krieg was muttering about meat bicycles and angel commented: "Dude. Ew."

We kept on fighting against the bandit's and processing slowly, but surely. Jackass himself had contacted us twice, and he actually had given me and Jay bounties! Ten million each.

In the end, the only enemies that actually proved to be a challenge, were the Badasses. Mainly psycho ones. Me, Jay and Zero had cut all of them apart so far, but i'm not sure if that tactic will work for long.

"This is it - the Firehawk's hideout. Be careful, friends: there are bound to be traps everywhere." Angel said as we entered his - or her - hideout. And the first thing that comes at us? two goddamn badass psychos.

They were taken down rather quickly, although i had to use tekkai, not that anyone except Jay would notice that, as i punched the last badass in the stomach with a fist of steel. Not literally of course, but my hand was as strong as steel at the moment due to Tekkai.

We kept on moving and evading Firehawk's fire traps. Soon enough, Jackass spoke to us. "Feel that? The sound of those earthquakes marks my drills getting closer and closer to the vault. That's the sound of progress, baby!" He said and cut the connection.

Soon, we entered Firehawk's lair, as it was called in the game and came on top of a platform with two bruisers on it. Everyone was about to fight when they exploded in flames and a woman with flaming wings on her back appeared on the platform. The firehawk was here.

Her wings dissipated, and her siren tattoo stopped glowing and then she uttered one word. "Sup." and then she collapsed.

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**We got this far in one chappie! yay so next chapter it's bloodshot stronghold time! have fun people, review, favourite, follow, etc.**

**Hope you enjoyed, buh-bye!**


	8. Explanation

**10 reviewers! Fuck yea! ( not much, but heck do i care. ) I'm happy now. also, reviewer speech time! although there isn't much, but who cares?**

_**Thom7960**_**: I'm happy you enjoy my story! btw, I'd suggest you read the first chapters too, just in case. Or you could just check the rokushiki techniques out using google. The first chapters really aren't that important, but hell, I needed to write something instead of just: "hurr. we fell into the world of borderlands, let's go kill some people!" But yeah. I agree, the first chapter's are pretty boring… and I personally haven't seen even one self insert on this site, although this story isn't a self insert, really… just two random OC's. I also do realize that they did kill Flynt too easily, but wanna know why? Flynt didn't have a shield. ( Teehee. ) That was the reason he fell so easily, if he had a shield, he would've probably lost an arm at best, but he wouldn't have died. I won't be making Dante and Jay weaker, BUT! they will both have their own special 'Drawbacks' so to say. Mwahahahahaha…**

**Also, I DID see what you did there. XD Also, I will be making the enemies stronger and in larger quantities. Take it like this: Flynt and his bandit group were on a really low level. ( because I am, in an odd way, using the borderlands level system to help power up and down enemies and vault hunters. ) so of course they'll be taken out rather easily. but now, the enemies will keep on being higher and higher in levels, so it'll be harder to penetrate their shields, etc. And Dante and Jay won't be leveling up, so to speak. oh, almost forgot… WATCH/READ ONE PIECE! soz for the caps. But in any case, it's one amazing manga/anime. Personally I'd suggest the anime, IF you're going to do something with it. I thank you for your review, for it makes me happy. :3**

***Disclaimer here, because Zero wanted it here for some reason.***

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**Jay's P.O.V**

"how ya'll doin'? The bandits call me the Firehawk, but the name's Lilith. I'm with the Raiders, like you – I keep the bandits in line so Roland can focus on taking down Jack. Anyway, long story, lots of internal bleeding." Lilith, AKA, the Firehawk said from her position on the ground.

"could one of you help me up?" She asked, and almost hurriedly, Maya went to help her up with a small amount of shock etched on her face. _'Oh yeah, she came to Pandora to find out about her Siren heritage, didn't she?' _I spoke to myself as Maya 'Revived' Lilith.

"Oof. I need a pick-me-up. One of you boys, get me some Eridium, will ya? I should have some in one of my strong boxes." Lilith said, now up and good. Or as good as one is in a state of internal bleeding, as she says. After she said that, surprisingly, Krieg went to get the Eridium for her. Lilith raised her eyebrow at the huge Psycho, but seemed to let it go without further ado.

She then, unlike in the game, turned around and met Krieg at the stairs where the Psycho had been coming back already. Again, surprisingly, Krieg had actually gotten the Eridium, instead of doing something psychotic. Or stupid.

"appreciate it." She said simply as Krieg handed the Eridium to her and she did… something siren-y to the Eridium and her body glowed purple momentarily and the Eridium disappeared from her grasp. I guess she absorbed it somehow.

"Ahh. Thanks. Bet you're looking for Roland, huh? He's not here – the Bloodshots grabbed him. Made 'em cocky, too; they never came after me this hard." She said, and just as she finished speaking, there was two explosions and all of us were in an immediate state of alertness, but Lilith just seemed to be taking it easy.

"Heh. Now the real fun begins. I'll see if I can't Phaseblast a few of 'em for ya'll." Lilith said, and used Phasewalk to disappear from sight just as psychos and marauders started to flood into the area.

"Damn it!" I shouted as I felt a bullet burrow into my right shoulder. _'I'm being careless…' _I thought to myself and took out both my revolver and my digistructing blood-red katana and putting away my sniper rifle that I had been using to pick out bandits from a distance. Then I riddled the marauder – that had shot me – with eight bullets in total, and then I beheaded him.

"Why the hell don't you have a shield?!" I heard Lilith shout from somewhere behind me, just as I used kami-e to, inconspicuously as possible, dodge another marauder shoot a full clip at me with an assault rifle. But when I turned my head, I saw Zero's mask facing me. He had noticed me use Kami-e to basically dance between the bullets. _'shit. Guess we'll have to explain our Rokushiki techniques after this battle's over and done with. But now, I'll need to answer Lilith's question.'_ I thought to myself just as I quickly used Soru to dodge a Badass Psychos Buzz axe.

"I would say it's a long story, but it's really not, so I'll just explain it quickly." I said and in the middle of the battle and started explaining what had happened in Marcus' shop…

_*Flashback start*_

_Me, Dante and Zero were the last one's to buy weapons and shields. Coincidentally, all of us bought Sniper rifles, pistols, and shields. Nothing more. My sniper rifle and pistol were a corrosive dahl sniper called Terror, and a slag Tediore pistol called peppy power shot. Dante's sniper rifle was a Jakobs one called Elephant Gun accompanied with an incendiary revolver called Greed. Zero's loadout was a hyperion sniper rifle – which he disliked, but there was no better sniper either – and a regular Vladof pistol called the Vengeful assassin. How… fitting, except the vengeful part, I guess. All three of us had also bought regular shields, Zero to replace his older one that he had gained from one of Flynt's bandits, and me and Dante had bought them just to satisfy Maya and Gaige who had been pestering us to buy them for some reason or another._

_But something odd happened the moment I and Dante attached the shields to our hips. Both of the shields charge's emptied instantly._

"…_This isn't supposed to happen, right?" I asked from Zero, who had an exclamation mark on his visor. "An odd happening/A shield emptying itself/Let's question Marcus." Zero spoke in his epic haiku as we walked back into Marcus' shop. He raised an eyebrow at us coming back into his shop and opened his mouth to question why we were back, but Dante was faster._

"_No, we don't want refunds or anything like that, if you're going to talk about that or something similar. But both my and Jay's shields emptied themselves the moment we attached them to our hips, and from what I gather, that's not supposed to happen normally. Unless you have a special shield of sorts, I guess…" Dante said, muttering the last part._

_Marcus' other eyebrow rose to accompany the other one, and he asked us to show our shield to him, so we did. After some inspecting, and testing them himself, he said that there was nothing wrong with them._

"_Well, they don't work on us… So I guess there's something on us that's disrupting the shields workings." Dante said and shrugged his shoulders. "well, let's just go without them." he said and started marching away, and I followed him soon after. No need to hinder ourselves with shields that won't be of any help._

_*Flashback ends.*_

"…and that's just about it." I finished my explaining and used my digistructing katana to finish the last marauder off. "well that's odd. I've never heard of shields not working on somebody without a good reason. I'd suggest you drop this vault hunting thing if you don't have anything to protect yourselves with." Lilith said and I was slightly annoyed at that but let it go. She didn't know about our Rokushiki, so it's alright.

Soon, nearly all of the bandit's were dead, except one. A badass psycho. It was standing on one of the platforms completely still, not moving an inch. But there was something distinctively odd about it. The badass didn't have the same crazed aura as any other psycho, and it didn't look different either, but… something was off about it. It was just standing there with dead eyes staring at us.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

"…anybody else hear tick tocking?" Dante asked as he made his way towards the psycho. _'There's something not right here… this didn't happen in the game.'_ I thought to myself as I watched Dante circle around the badass, but he stopped when he was behind the psycho, and he paled considerably.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The tick tocking was becoming more frequent too. "What's wrong?" Axton asked as he too made his way to the badass, with Salvador and zero following him. "This guys back is full of explosives…" Dante said and he turned around the corpse of the badass psycho. It's back and innards had been completely removed, and it's back was basically an empty space. Except that his back was filled with explosives.

"Well, damn." Salvador said, as he, me, Jay, Axton and Zero ran to the psycho, so that we may remove it as fast as possible. "Let's toss him over the fence and down into the pit!" Axton shouted and the five of us started lifting the Badass and moving him towards the edge.

TickTockTickTockTickTock.

We got to the edge just in time, and we dumped down the body. But that wasn't enough, as the charges went off. The platform we we're standing on was tilting very dangerously now that there wasn't much to hold it stable anymore.

"Let's move!" Dante shouted and jumped from this shaky platform to another one. To the one that Lilith was supposed to teleport us to. But that wouldn't happen now… And that platform, too was shaking.

"Get a move on, all of you!" Dante shouted once more, and helped all of us over to the second platform. He and Gaige were the last ones and both of them were nearly off the platform when it started to fall.

"well, fuck…" I heard Dante mutter just as the platform fell with both Dante and Gaige still on it. There was a collective amount of gasps from behind me, and then all the vault hunter's except zero and krieg started shouting their names. Krieg did look slightly shocked, and Zero had a frowning face on his visor.

I sighed audibly and sat down on the ledge of the pit. "Oi, Jackass, you and Gaige coming back up?" I shouted. The other vault hunter's didn't expect a reply, but I did. "Yeah, yeah. Gaige fainted though." Dante shouted down below, and soon he appeared, using **Kamisori(1)** – a variation of Soru – and carrying the unconscious Mechromancer bridal style. The other vault hunter's and Lilith were gaping like goldfishes and I couldn't help but let a smirk cross over my face.

"What, didn't expect them to survive?" I asked with a slight hint of teasing evident in my voice. Soon enough, Dante landed next to me, just as Gaige was stirring awake. "What… what happened?" She asked in an obviously confused tone. "…We didn't die?" She asked, although it was more of a statement, and the other vault hunter's were still gaping like goldfishes. Krieg's eyes looked like saucer's by now and Zero was standing in an alarmed position with an exclamation mark on his visor.

"Nope, we didn't. The platform fell down, you slipped into unconsciousness, I picked you up, and made my way back up here." Dante said, sporting a small teasing smile. Gaige noticed she was in Dante's hold and blushed slightly. "…You can let me down now…" She said, flustered. "aww, what a cute pair you two make." I said, still keeping my teasing smirk on my face. Gaige's face turned even redder and Dante just let out a good-natured chuckle, but mainly ignored me. "as you wish, princess." He said and let Gaige down, making it look like she weighed nothing to him. _'Well, she probably doesn't, due to our training…' _I thought to myself and checked the vault hunter's once more. They were still gaping, and I let out a small sigh.

I walked over to them and snapped my finger's in front of each of them respectively. "Hey, fishies. Wake up." I said and finally they all seemed to stir and Dante and me were immediately bombarded with questions, but somehow, Zero's haiku seemed to carry over all of the questions.

"Superhuman speed/Deadly dance between bullets/kicking air to float." He spoke in his haiku, and surprisingly, he spoke again, this time, not in haiku. "What are you?" he asked and the other vault hunter's went silent at the question.

"Humans who have mastered a superhuman martial arts style called the Rokushiki, which literally means: Six styles… Jay, shall we show them?" Dante asked, with a small sadistic smile on his face. He had really become sadistic over the three years, not that he'd ever admit it…

"why not? But before we demonstrate, I'll give you all a small quick explanation of the skills. First is **Soru**. This technique allows us to move with leg strength explosive enough to seemingly cause one's body to disappear. Like this." I said and demonstrated it by appearing behind the other vault hunter's and grabbing Axton and Maya's shoulders. "boo." I said and they froze on the spot.

"That's **Soru **for you… Next would be **Kami-E**. It's best shown in action, so Salvador. Shoot a full clip from your assault rifle at me." Dante said as he took a few steps backwards and prepared for Salvador to shoot at him. Gaige had a panicked look in her eye. "Don't worry. He won't hit." I said to her with a reassuring voice. Although it really didn't help her. Just then, Salvador raised his eyebrow and aimed towards Dante and started shooting. The moment the first bullet flew from the weapon, Dante muttered '**Kami-e**' silently and dodged – or danced, if you ask Zero – between the bullets with grace and skill.

Once more, the vault hunter's were gaping at Dante, because he actually managed to evade every single bullet, not even one even scratching his skin.

"Then there's **Geppo**. The technique that Dante used to get up from the Pit down there, although he was using a variation of it called **Kamisori**, which is basically a hybrid of **Geppo** and **Soru**." I said and started jumping over the pit, using only one leg so that i'll remain in place. And they were still gaping… Goldfishes, I tell you.

"Salvador, when I said that a gun isn't needed to pierce a human's body, I was referring to another technique of the six, called **Shigan**. We didn't use that at the fight with Flynt, but yeah… Would any of you want to be a test subject for **Shigan**, or shall I use the rocky wall?" Dante asked, still keeping a smile on his face that was nearly permanent these days. But the smile varied from sadistic, to sad, to happy. Who knew you could emit so much emotions with a simple smile?

"I guess you can use me, Amigo. Just don't kill me, alright?" Salvador muttered with his gruff voice and steadied himself. "Alright. I'll owe you a drink for this though, because it'll hurt quite much." Dante said, disappearing with **Soru** and soon appearing next to Salvador with his index finger buried deep in Salvador's right shoulder.

Salvador's eyes widened and he soon jerked back from Dante, and the bullet-like hole in his shoulder was bleeding quite profusely at the moment. Dante just gave a small chuckle and licked a bit of Salvador's blood off his finger.

"Then there's **Rankyaku**, which we used to kill Flynt. If he had shields, the fight would have been quicker than one second… Not that it could be called a fight…" I muttered and poised my leg ready and quickly Kicking out a deadly compressed wind blade at the rocky wall of the cavern and creating a five meter deep, ten meter long gash on the wall.

"And then there's **Tekkai**! I personally prefer **Kami-E** over it, but whatever… Axton, empty your Assault rifle on me, would you?" Dante asked as he positioned himself and muttered '**Tekkai**' under his breath and waited for Axton to shoot him. "you sure?" He asked and took aim at Dante. "Yup." He said simply and waited patiently for Axton to shoot him.

"well, if you're sure…" Axton muttered and pulled the trigger. Once more everyone was gaping as the bullets ricocheted off of Dante's body, creating metallic sounds as the bullet's came in contact with Dante. "And that was **Tekkai**. We've trained our bodies so that we may turn into 'Iron Carapaces' if we so choose." I said and sat down on the stony ground.

"There's also a seventh technique, which only the masters of each skill can use. We can do it, but it's still rather... uncontrolled, so we won't show it to you. It's called **Rokuogan**, and it's more destructive than five launcher's combined." Dante said with a thoughtful expression.

"Okay… Now that You've explained your… special skills, How about we talk about rescuing my boyfriend? Well… Ex-boyfriend." Lilith said and she started leaning on the rocky wall of the cavern. "Before the Bloodshots grabbed him, Roland was getting intel on the Vault, and what Jack plans to do with it. You have to find him. Let's head back to Sanctuary, as I've gotta keep the city in one piece while Roland's away. You'll make your way to the Bloodshot stronghold from there, whenever you're done resting, if you want to take a small break now." She said and started to make her way to the exit of the cavern and I just stood there dumbfounded. That… didn't happen in the game. I guess our arrival has altered the story slightly in some spots…

I could see that Dante was also slightly confused, but seemed to go with it. So we made our way towards Santuary, accompanied by Lilith the Firehawk.

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**AAAAAAAAAAAAND that's a chapter right there. Finally the vault hunter's found out about the Rokushiki techniques, and we didn't get to bloodshot stronghold yet… damn it. But next chapter! Next chapter we'll get there. I promise.**

**We didn't even get out of the cavern... -.- Oh well.**

**If you enjoyed, please Favourite, Review, Etc. Enjoy life and buh-baiii!**


	9. Bloodshot stronghold

**So… the group will get Roland back to sanctuary in this chapter. The quest of getting him back was rather long, so expect this chapter to be long.**

**IMPORTANT! I got a PM earlier. It was about 'confusing attitudes' as the pm said. So I'll write how Dante and Jay will act throughout the fic.**

**Dante - Carefree, laid-back and lazy if not in combat, can be a charmer if he so wants to be, too. On guard and very tense most of the time, albeit won't show it. He's also VERY sadistic ( blame Lucard. ) if in combat or even just showing Rokushiki techniques. He won't ever admit it though. He's also slightly masochistic too. Not much, not at all. But slightly.**

**Jay – Also carefree, but not to the same extent as Dante. Remains Calm, and if you're going against him in a fight, cold and brutal. He dislikes violence, even though he causes it more than Dante in most cases, which Dante finds ironic. Is pretty dense and easily embarrassed too. **

***Disclaimer here.***

* * *

**Dante's P.O.V**

We got back to the Sanctuary quite soon, with the fast travel station and all that. I was still thinking, why Lilith accompanied us instead of just using her phasewalking, and why the Psycho badass back at Lilith's hideout was stacked full of explosives, as if ready for us. It all made no sense.

"It seems that the storyline is partially different." I said to Jay as we drove after the other six vault hunters in our runner. We had to use four runners, which should be impossible, but for some reason, it currently wasn't. "Yeah, and that's due to us being here. I don't see any other viable reason." Jay said, just as we stopped in front of the bloodshot stronghold gate.

"Hunh – nobody seems to be around. Just honk your horn – maybe this won't be so hard after all." Lilith said through the echo communicator, and thus, Salvador honked his horn, as he was the first car, with krieg in the turret. "Yeah, yeah, I'm openin' the gate!" a bandit shouted through the echo communicators, and just as the gate was opening, it stopped, and another voice came through the communication systems.

"Hold it, idiots! That don't look like one of our technicals! They're here for our hostage, get em!" Flanksteaks voice shouted through the echo communicator, and we decided to avoid unwanted contact, and just drove away from the stronghold, and soon enough, all four of our runners were parked at happy pig motel, and we were contemplating what to do now.

but just as we were starting to form out a plan, Scooter's voice came through the echo communicators. "Mm mmm! You ain't getting' in the dam that way, peppernips! The bloodshots ain't lettin' you in without a truck like theirs. Go see my kin out in the Dust – she'll hook you up with some skeevy-lookin' wheels. Mm hmm!"

"Well, that solves the problem. Let's go." Axton said as he made his way to his runner, where Zero was already sitting on the turret spot.

Pretty soon, all of us were headed towards the dust, when Scooter once more spoke to us. "Ellie's way out in the bandit country. Be careful out there, amigos – I mean it" he said and the Echo went silent.

"If I remember right, it's going to be a few hours of driving, right?" I shouted to Jay, keeping my eyes on the road… but Jay wasn't answering me. "Jay?" I asked carefully and turned around for a moment. "biscuits…rokushiki…maya…" He muttered whilst sleeping. SLEEPING! _'Asshole, making me drive the whole damn time… well, I guess it can't be helped… But if-'_ my train of thoughts was quickly cut off when I heard a deep, rumbling voice in my head. A voice I could never forget. **"Greetings once more, brat." **the voice said and it froze me on the spot, but thankfully, I could still steer the wheel, although not much. But enough.

'_Ripper… What do you want?'_ I asked in my mind, and I felt the memories I had tried to lock away, flood into my head. That night… it was hell. **"I'm merely here to inform you… you still have thirteen days, before we'll fight it out… Don't worry though, I'll give you a chance… I expect you to meet me at Happy pig motel at 1AM, when that night comes. If you won't be there, I'll kill everyone in Sanctuary. That is all." **Ripper said and I felt him leave my mind, and my stiff body relaxing once more. "Damn it… I can't risk not going… he could kill everyone…" I muttered to myself and was taken off guard by a sudden question.

"Who could kill everyone?" Jay asked, voice completely serious and I felt my eyes widen in shock. _'He was faking sleep?!' _

"Nobody." I said, ridding all emotion off my voice.

"Who?"

"Nobody."

Jay was obviously annoyed by my stubborn attitude, but I couldn't tell him about Ripper, no matter what it took. "Just tell me. If you think something has the ability to 'kill everyone' like you said, then you'll probably need help with it."

"I probably will need help, or I'll quite likely die. But I can't, no matter what." I said, still keeping my voice monotone and face blank. It was too dangerous to tell even Jay. I couldn't tell him, or anyone.

Jay didn't approve of my stubbornness. He didn't ask anymore, but I knew he'd keep questioning me later.

* * *

***Five hours later.***

Five hours. Five hours driving through nothing but god-damn desert. But finally, we arrived and Scooter's voice flooded through the echo communicator. "Finally made It to the Dust, huh? You been off the Echo fer hours, thought y'all mighta got brained or stuff. But you ain't, so yay… and stuff… and stuff."

I couldn't help myself, and let out a small amused chuckle. Scooter probably doesn't want any of us close to Ellie or something like that…

It didn't take us long to arrive at Ellie's. Just like in the game, she had a bandit technical in the crusher, and the driver of it was shouting at her, and Ellie just seemed amused because of it.

"I shoulda killed your fat ass when I had the chance!" The driver shouted, struggling to get out of the bandit technical, but he wasn't succeeding. "Sorry, what was that? You gotta speak up!" She shouted as the bandit technical with the driver was crushed in a small explosion of blood and car parts. "Heh. That was awesome." She said and turned around, noticing us.

"Oh, howdy, I didn't see ya there."She said as all of us came out of our runners. We soon arrived inside her carage where she had went after the bandit technical was crushed. _'She didn't go in there just yet in the game though, did she?'_ I thought as she spoke once more.

"Name's Ellie. My brother Scooter told me y'all were comin'! Don't get many visitors around here, especially not ones so cute." She said, walking around the carage pulling out a toolkit from one of her drawers.

"Tryin' ta rescue your pal Roland from the dam, huh? I betcha y'all could fool those Bloodshots if you drove up in one of their custom trucks. I got one right over yonder that i… Crushed with the driver still inside…" she said, finishing the sentence with a slightly unsure voice, and I let out a light chuckle. Jay did too.

"My bad. Well, I got a Vanilla technical in the shop and most of the parts we need. Just gotta doll it up with some more of the bandit's trimmin's – spikes, spikes, skulls, that kinda thing. Y'all could probably scavenge that stuff up from the bandit patrols around here." She said, starting to play around with the technical she was going to 'doll up' as she put it.

"Well, that's settled. The people who just didn't drive for FIVE GODDAMN HOURS will get those parts." I said, falling down on the sand. The drivers accepted, but the one's who had been resting in the turrets disagreed, except for Zero, who just got into one of the runner's and drove off to get parts.

In the end, the other three agreed to go after Zero to get parts, so in the end Axton, me, Gaige and Salvador remained at Ellie's carage, and Ellie kept on talking to the other four, still hunting parts, through the Echo Communicator. "You'll have to blow up some bandit cars and grab the crap from the wreckage. And don't pay 'em any mind if they start calling y'all names. – Just makes killin' em that much more fun." She said and soon, Scooter spoke to us all through the Echo's.

"So, y'all an' my sister are gettin' along pretty well, huh? That's cool, that's cool. Course, if ya make fun of the way she looks, I'll have to tie you to a vending machine and set you on fire, but it's – nah, it's cool you guys are hangin' out. It's – It's – It's fine." Scooter seems troubled because were 'hangin' out' with his sister, but I highly doubt anyone of us would approach her like that…No offence though.

I also noticed Ellie wasn't counting how many parts the other's had collected so far. That's another difference from the game.

"Almost got a bandit car? Roland can handle whatever the Bloodshots dish out, but I generally don't like letting him get tortured for any longer than I have to." Lilith's voice flooded through the Echo systems. If I remember right, the guy's should have four parts now…

Soon after that, two cars rolled back into Ellie's carage. Zero was with Krieg and Jay with Maya, and they had the five parts required, and soon enough, Ellie was making us a bandit technical.

"Groovy! Now y'all can 'struct one of those bandit-lookin' things from any of my brother's Catch-A-Rides. Come back and see me sometime, you sumbitches… And tell Scooter to stop setting my customers on fire! I can take care of myself!" Ellie said, shouting the last part as we spawned two Bandit technical and boarded them. Luckily one of them could hold four vault hunters, so we didn't have to get multiple cars.

Soon after we were driving back to the bloodshot stronghold… I was sitting in the back of one of the technicals with Gaige next to me. Jay was driving this time and Maya was sitting in the turret, having small talk with Jay.

"I'm so sleepy… I didn't get lots of sleep before we left, and then I had to drive for five hours…" Gaige said from next to me, as she let out a small, cute yawn. I let a small smile overcome my expression and I decided to try something.

"well, just sleep then, alright?" I said as innocently as possible, and pulled her so close to me that our sides were together and she was starting to blush furiously. _'Oh… Wonder if she likes me…?'_ I asked myself as I felt her head lean onto my shoulder. Coincidentally, it was night-time already.

"Goodnight, Dante…" She said and was nearly asleep already. "Goodnight, Gaige…" I said and gave her a small kiss on the cheek. By now her face was like a tomato, it's quite cute how she gets after a few words and a kiss.

Soon after, we fell asleep.

* * *

***Five hours later***

"Hey, Lovebirds, wake up." Jay and Maya were prodding our sides. Somehow, I and Gaige ended up in a… quite an awkward position. Not too awkward though. Her head was in my chest, and my head was in her hair. But it was quite an enjoyable position, if you ask me…

"…Why are we like this…?" Gaige asked timidly, blushing madly. "Don't know. I'm quite comfortable here though." I said, which cause her to blush even more. "Well, you can do that more when we've saved Roland." Jay said and I reluctantly began getting out of the car, but then I realized we were in front of the bloodshot stronghold and got back to laying in the back of our technical.

Axton was keeping his head down whilst honking the horn in the other car, where he, Krieg, Salvador and Zero were located.

"They look like our technicals. Let 'em in whilst I try to get Hyperion back on the horn." Flanksteak said and the gate came down, but we couldn't get in with the cars, so it's battling from now on…

"We've been tricked! Get em!" Flanksteak shouted as Salvador started shooting bandits from the turret spot of the other technical.

"Lets roll." I said silently and soon shit hit the fan for the bandits as all eight of us started killing just about everyone outside of the stronghold.

Soon enough, all of the bandits were dead, but I had a bullet in my leg, and Jay had a hole in his hand, as a bullet went through it early in the fight. But it wasn't over yet, as flanksteaks voice came through the echo communicators.

"We got an intruder! GET EM, BADMAW!" Flanksteaks voice shouted, as a Nomad colored in red came down with the drawbridge, holding a shield with three midget psycho's strapped onto it.

"Pin him down, whilst I and Jay get behind him!" I shouted to the other six, and as soon as I said that, the other five were shooting at him, and krieg was rushing him with his buzz axe. Soon enough, the midgets were dead, but badmaw was still standing. The others were keeping him pinned down. Soon enough, we managed to use **Soru **to get behind him quickly, and used it once more, and both of our fingers collided with his spine as we did two successful **Shigans**. He was dying, but apparently, he didn't plan to go down so easily, because just as I and Jay pulled our fingers out of Badmaw's back, he, with his last strength turned around and bashed me on the head with his shield. I didn't have time to react, as he was surprisingly fast.

"Ow shit…" I muttered as I lay down on the ground where I had flown from badmaw's shield bash. _'what the fuck? He was fast, but I should've still been able to dodge that… Could it be Ripper disrupting my movements, and making them more disoriented…? Whatever… I'll just train more with Jay, so that I won't be hit that easily. If Badmaw had a sharp object instead of his shield, I might be dead now.' _I though, scowling as I got up, still slightly winded from the blow I just received. Jay soon appeared next to me with **Soru**.

"You alright bro?" He asked, but there was a hidden question lying underneath. "yeah. Don't know why I couldn't dodge that blow. I'm not that slow…" I said, muttering the last part. "Are you alright?" Gaige asked as she ran next to my wobbling self. "Yeah, yeah. I'm good, no worries…" I said as Axton brought the drawbridge down using the key Badmaw dropped. I didn't even notice the drawbridge going up…

"Well, let's move then." Axton said and we started making our way inside the Bloodshot stronghold.

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**So we finally got into the stronghold. A small chapter, I know… But I had to write this in four hours in order to get it done today, considering I've been busy… and am going to be busy for awhile now. Therefore, I had to finish this now, with only 2500 words or so… Next week will probably be another small-ish chapter, because I can only write on the weekend next week.**

**There was also some fluff in this chapter. have fun with your opinions on that.**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed, please favourite, follow and review. Cya!**


	10. Roland and Vodka

**The 10th chapter of Rokushiki vault hunters, people! also, story hits 30k words! over 2400 views!**

**I'm also 1 day late. *Gets shot with multiple BB rifles* I'M SORRY!**

**The fluff from last chapter got some positive feedback, so more of that in the future! :3**

_**IMPORTANT?!**_

**In any case, my school starts on the uhm… 12****th**** day of the next month? I think so, atleast. But I'm not sure… anyhow, when it starts, I'll sadly have to extend my updating time into 2 weeks, as I can only write on weekends then… Stupid school. **

**Anyhow, onwards with the story.**

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**Jay's P.O.V**

We entered Bloodshot stronghold, and soon came to a small area with vending machines and a huge Dahl sign on the wall. _'So this is the part in the game where we get to when entering the stronghold.' _I thought to myself as we made our way towards the vending machines. Soon enough, everyone but me and Dante started refilling their ammunitions and such.

What I didn't expect to happen though, was Maya getting me one of Zed's 'Health Now!' packs, and for Gaige to get Dante one too.

"Somebody got hurt?" I asked, tilting my head to the side slightly out of honest curiosity. Maya's lip twitched when I said it though. "You did, idiot!" she said, pointing at my hand, where a bullet had went through. Gaige reprimanding Dante, because he had the same reaction as I did when Maya gave me the Health Now kit.

"It's a hole. In my hand. How is a small injection of medicine going to help me at all? And besides the wounds small, so It won't be a hindrance or anything." I said and started making my way to the other vault hunters, but before I could take a second step, Maya spun me around, injecting the Kit around the bullet wound in my hand. To my surprise, the wound quickly grew shut, leaving me astounded, not that I'd show it on my face.

"Well, it did help, so there." Maya said walking towards the others, her hips swinging temptingly from side to side with each passing ste- _'What the hell am I thinking?' _I thought to myself, slapping myself mentally and hiding my… growing problem, so to speak.

"You're in? Great. Roland should be around here somewhere. I'm sure y'all can handle yourselves, but if anything happens to Roland… Make sure nothing happens to Roland." Lilith's voice came through the ECHO communicators as we made our way up a staircase, with me trailing behind the group as my problem was persistent.

There was two routes which we could use to enter. The first was immediately in front of us as we got to the top of the staircase, and the other was on the other side of a few metal beams. "Hide." Dante said as we noticed a bandit psycho come closer to the first entrance, but not coming into the area we were at.

"How about this? I, Jay and Zero will sneak up on them using the other entrance to the area, whilst you five keep them pinned down, so that we may get behind them and assassinate them?" Dante spoke up after the psycho passed the entrance, going to the right, where the other entrance was located.

Axton was thinking about the plan and soon approved of it. The five others started firing in the room, with Krieg going mad with his buzz axe as i, Dante and Zero crossed over the metallic beams. As we entered the room, the bandits in the room were all concentrating on killing the five vault hunters by the first entrance, and not even looking our way. Dante and i used **Soru **whilst Zero used his Deception skill to move, being unseen to the regular human eye.

I came to a stop behind a regular Nomad, Dante was behind a psycho and Zero was behind a marauder. There were 3 other bandits we'd take out after these three were killed first. Taking the hilt of my Blood-red katana, i watched as the beautiful blade digistructed onto the hilt, and with one swift move, i had beheaded the Nomad. By the time The Nomads head was on the floor, the other five bandits in the room were already dead, mainly from stabbing and beheading, but also from bullet wounds. And one had been mutilated by Krieg's Buzz axe.

Soon enough, Flanksteaks annoying voice came from the ECHO communicators and i was forced to listen to him trying to get Hyperion pay for Roland. "Look here Hyperion - I'm not askin' much for Roland! A million bucks! Hello? This thing on?"

Quickly after that, we entered another of the many rooms still to come in this stronghold. This was empty, but the next one wasn't. It was the room with the sewer-like pipe leading to the place where you could do the quest to kill the four 'Mutant ninja turtles'. I always liked that easter egg.

"You handling the Bloodshots alright? They've been trying to take Roland out ever since he kicked their asses out of Sanctuary. I shoulda seen it coming." Lilith's suave voice flooded through the ECHO communicators after Flanksteak went silent.

"This is going to take awhile..." i muttered to myself, just now remembering how big the stronghold actually is.

***45 minutes later***

Lots of fighting, wound tending and going through the too GOD-DAMN BIG STRONGHOLD we finally arrived in the room where the cell's were located at. And once more, Flanksteaks ever-so-annoying voice came through the ECHO communicators. "Somebody stop those Slaggunds from springin' Roland! We lose him, we lose our payday!"

A few psychos came our way, but they were nothing new. Or hard to fight against for that matter. Except the last one, he seemed more controlled, stronger. wiser. _'There's something about this Psycho...' _i thought to myself, watching as the other's killed the other two psycho's, whilst the last, third one stayed back. Narrowing my eyes, i used **Soru **to appear in front of him, poising my leg for one of the offensive abilities of the Rokushiki.

"**Rankya**-" I started saying, my leg already moving in an arc, when the psycho moved at speed equal to **Soru**, getting inside of my guard, diverting my **Rankyaku** over his head with his left leg, and punching me back a few feet. All in a span of one second.

Skidding back on my feet, i felt myself come to a stop just as the psycho sat down on a box near one of the cell doors, keeping his posture seemingly calm, but i knew better. "Jay, why didn't you kill the last psycho?" Dante asked and i could feel an aura of confusion coming from him and the other vault hunters, too.

"...He diverted my **Rankyaku**." I said lowly, but everyone heard it. Only Dante realized how bad that was. "...Excuse me? I hope i heard wrong. The only way for anyone to divert **Rankyaku**, is to be completely caught up to a Rokushiki users speed and strength, which is near impossible in the first place." Dante said, his voice ranging from disbelief, to shock and into excitement.

Now the other vault hunter's realized how odd it was for the psycho to divert a **Rankyaku** of all things.

"**As if your measly Rankyaku's could actually damage me... Dante. Time's ticking. 12 days.**" The Psycho said with a voice deeper than Salvador's, and darker than anything i've felt before, his first sentence pointed towards us, and the second towards Dante. As he finished speaking, his head exploded in a pool of blood and brains, amongst other things. "...Dante, what'd he mean by t-" I asked, but stopped as i noticed Dante standing still, frozen on spot, with his skin as pale as snow.

"From the many years i have been friends with Dante, i immediately know that he's in a state of shock. He's never that pale unless in shock..." i muttered to myself and lifted propped him on my shoulder, his glazed eyes staring at the ground. "What happened to Dante? And what did that Psycho mean?" I heard Gaige shout from behind me. "Dante froze from shock, and what that psycho meant... that's Dante's story to tell, not mine." i said. I was the only one who knew how Dante lost his eye and got his three scars, and Dante had imitated Ripper's voice rather well to me... and that Psycho sounded near identical to Ripper.

"If Dante wants to tell you what happened between him and... the thing that was possessing that psycho, he will tell you. But DO NOT under any circumstances ask or pester him about it. I don't want him hyperventilating right after he gets out of his shocked state..." i said, muttering the last sentence, and walking towards the cell where i saw Roland resting on one of the beds, but earlier i saw him observing us killing those psychos.

"Shocked so easily/Pale as the snow, like a ghost/Traumas of the past?" Zero's monotone robotic voice asked from about a foot behind me. "yes." I said simply, finally reaching the door to Roland's cell, even though there wasn't much walking anyway.

"Vault hunters! Good to finally meet y'all in person. Hell of a job fighting through all those Bloodshots-" Roland said as he sat up on the bed he was resting on, but he was cut off as the wall next to him exploded and a Hyperion loader walked through the wall. "This'll just take a second." He said, tacking the loader and ripping out it's - what i assumed to be a powercore - and throwing it at another loader that was just about to come through the hole, causing it to explode. Then, a BUL loader rammed Roland into the door of the cell. The loader approached Roland to finish him, but Roland ripper an electric machine gun like weapon out from the first loader he had killed, and shot the BUL loader down.

"Well - That's that. Now, let's see about getting out of here." Roland said, rising from his spot on the ground and turning towards us, and all of us - except Roland - Saw W4R-D3N, the huge blue-ish constructor appear behind Roland and shoot these blue beams at him.

"Vault hunters! you've gotta stop this thing!" He shouted as W4R-D3N shot the beams at his legs, then at his hands, effectively pulling him onto W4R-D3N, and the constructor then proceeded to trap him in a blue-ish glowing prison of sorts, probably made out of electricity to keep him suspended.

"Let go of me, dammit." Roland shouted and Asshat's voice came through our ECHO communicators. "And that's how Handsome Jack pays ransoms. Long time no see, Roland!" He said as an EXP loader came through the hole, crashing against the Cell door and blowing it open. "Soldiers, this way!" Rolands voice came through the ECHO communicator's and we saw him being taken away by the blue constructor.

"Son of a bitch! They're taking him to the top of the dam! - Get there, quick!" Lilith's voice said through the ECHO's and we made our way after the Blue constructor that captured Roland, whilst fighting against Loaders and bandits respectively, as we entered the Bloodshot ramparts after about five minutes of combat.

* * *

***40 minutes later***

Finally, we arrived in the area where the W4R-D3N was waiting at, with Roland still in his blue cage. Soon enough, all hell broke loose, as the six others kept the Loaders at bay, i and Dante, who was now back in action, kept bombarding the Constructor with **Rankyaku's** and **Shigans**. At one point, we even used **Geppo** to get high in the air above it, and then use **Tekkai** and drop on top of it with huge strength.

Pretty quickly the Constructor was down, and Roland was free, helping us kill the remaining loaders, when there was only one badass loader left.

"Let's kill this thing and leave." Dante said darkly. He was still shaken by Ripper's visit in the psychos body, and he shouldn't be fighting after that shock. "You rest, we'll handle it." i said quickly making a Rankyaku and cutting off the huge loader's other hand/gun thing.

"I can do something..." Dante said, being too stubborn for his own good, and used **Geppo** to get upon the Loader, then used **Tekkai** to make his body hard as iron, and let gravity take it's toll as he fell down on the loaders head, crushing it partially. "Told you." He said to me after that little spectacle. But the loader was still moving, and it took aim at Dantes back. "MOVE!" i shouted as the loader shot a series of rockets into Dante's back.

There was a warying amount of reactions as Dante was shrouded in the smoke created by the explosions of the rockets, but mainly everyone was scared at what might have happened to him. Except me. _'Lucky idiot, didn't realize to let his body revert to it's original state...'_ i thought to myself, recalling that Dante never removed **Tekkai's** effects.

Soon the smoke dissipated and we noticed Dante standing on top of the now crushed loader. Apparently he had destroyed it whilst under the smokescreen provided by the rockets exploding. "Sheesh. React faster next time. You're seriously getting rusty, man." I said as we settled down after Gaige went into worry-wart mode and pestered Dante about being alright and such.

"Tsk. Blame Ri- The thing. I wouldn't be like this if not for _IT._" Dante said with hatred lacing his every word. He also nearly slipped out Rippers name to the others. Not something that happens everyday.

"Well, i'm not sure what those odd skills you two used were, but you two are strong, that i know... But anyway, Meet me back at Sanctuary. I have a plan to stop Jack, but it won't work without all of you." Roland said, running to the one-way only Fast travel station and digistructing out of the ramparts.

"You saved Roland! This planet has been waiting for heroes like yourselves. Oh, thank god Jack didn't send Wilhelm." Angel's voice said through the ECHO communicators and i suddenly got an idea... An idea i had to try. "Hey, angel?" I asked tentatively.

"Yes?"

"Could it be possible of you to give me your DNA?" I asked, keeping my voice blank as the question was slightly odd, creepy even.

"Why?" she asked after awhile, and the other's were giving me odd looks.

"I have my reasons, but let's just say... you'll appreciate it." I said with a small smile.

"Very well. I can't give you my DNA directly, by any means, but i can make it so that my blood vessels are transported in a tube to the Sanctuary. Is that alright?" She asked and i gave a small 'Yes' as an answer. She then cut the connection with us.

"Why do you need her DNA?" Maya asked me after we were closer to the fast travel station.

"I don't need it, per se, but there's something i want to try. And for it, i'll need her DNA." i said, laying my hand on top of the Fast travel station and Digistructing to Sanctuary with the other's close behind.

Soon afterwards, i, Dante, Salvador and Axton went to have a few drinks at Moxxi's bar. The four of us had become drinking buddies a day or so after we arrived at Sanctuary. _'And i'm sure Mordecai will join our group of four once we get him to Sanctuary.' _i thought to myself as i downed the last of my Vodka.

* * *

**10th chapter, people! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**

**i'm happy nao. Sorry that it's a day late. ( or 2 days late for some, i guess.. )**

**and... 30k words! ( nearly. :p )**

**Also, there's something i'm going to do with Angel's DNA. Can you quess what, though? :3 Review me your quesses, people!**

**Also, i'm not sure if i can update this week, because i'll be veeeeeery busy for some time. sowwy. :( But that's a huge 'Maybe'. Not sure yet.**


	11. Side Mission

**11th chapter of rokushiki vault hunters is here! I'm once more posting a chapter so late.**

***disclaimer here***

**So… one of the reviews asked if I'm going to have a lemon in this story. What do you think? I'd make a poll but my last one received no votes at all. Maybe because nobody reads these things, even though they're important. But in any case… answer in your reviews, do you want lemons or not? if you do, then I'll give both OC's one lemon each. if not, then no lemons. Your choice, really.**

* * *

**Dante's P.O.V**

Damn it all…I'm receiving sideways glances from everyone after Ripper's little stunt at the bloodshot stronghold. Can't be helped though, I guess.

"how did those bandit's snag you anyway?" I heard Lilith ask Roland as I, along the other Vault hunter's arrived at the upper floor of the Crimson Raider's headquarters. "Uh – I was taking a leak and one of them knocked me out." Roland answered, slightly awkwardly and I let out a small chuckle at his answer. They then noticed us.

"Vault hunters, Handsome Jack is going to kill us all unless you can stop him." He said bluntly and immediately Lilith said: "He means 'hi.' That's his way of saying 'Hi.'"

"Right. Sorry. Hi. I'll be honest with you, soldiers. We're losing this war. We've been trying to stop Jack for years – taking out his men, raiding his Eridium mines – but it hasn't been enough. But you – You met Jack and lived. You fought off the Rippers and Bloodshots – Saved my ass and Lilith's" Roland said, and I tensed as he said 'Rippers', but I knew he didn't mean the Ripper that's been tormenting me. "Thanks by the way." Lilith said quickly

"If we're going to survive this, we need your help, Vault hunter. Now, we thought Jack wanted to open a vault and use it's power to wipe us off Pandora, but thanks to some intel I stole from a hyperion convoy, I found out… we were wrong." Roland continued after Lilith's quick thanks, and this information seemed to shock Lilith quite thoroughly. Of course it would.

"What?" Lilith asked immediately.

"He's not going to open a vault. He's going to control it." Roland said, confusing everyone but me and Jay.

"I'll just go ahead and repeat myself, what?" Lilith said in confusion.

"The vault Jack's looking for isn't an alien prison, or a cache of weapons. It's a living thing. An ancient Eridian warrior, powerful enough to destroy all life on Pandora. Whoever awakens it, gets to control it." Roland said, causing confusion and shock to everyone but me and Jay, and surprisingly, Zer0. He was tense, nearly frozen on spot. But he soon snapped out of it. Nobody noticed it except me though. _'He knows something...?'_

"That sounds...bad." Lilith said, still in slight shock. "If Jack wakes the Warrior, yeah. But if we control the Warrior first..." Roland started saying, and Lilith finished his sentence. "...We could use it to wipe Hyperion off the map. Alright, i'm likin' this plan."

"There's a problem. We need the vault key to wake the Warrior. And Jack's already got it. But, if you've spoken to Tannis-" Roland said, but was quickly cut off by Lilith again. "-She didn't vomit when she saw you, did she? She does that, sometimes."

"She might've told you the key needs to be charged with Eridium. We're racing against time - Every ounce of that stuff that Jack mines from the ground puts him closer to taking control of that warrior and wiping us out. We've gotta get our hands on the vault key. Now, if anybody knows where that keys being kept, it's my spy out in Tundra Express. He's as good at gathering intel, as he is at drinking. So i'm sure he's sleeping off last night's booze right now - You'll need a fire weapon to wake him up. I'll explain when you get out there." Roland finished his rather long-ish explanation about the Vault key, Warrior and Jack, and i let a small smirk overcome my features as i realized Mordecai would be joining us in Sanctuary very soon.

"I see. Are we leaving immediately to Tundra Express?" I asked as everyone made their way off the balcony that was starting to have too much people on it. "Not necessarily. You can go tomorrow if you wish to. Do some 'Side missions' so to speak for the citizens of Sanctuary. You might want to ask Dr. Zed, Marcus, Moxxi, Hammerlock, Scooter or even Claptrap for missions. There's also a bounty board near the middle of the town. You can't miss it." Lilith said, as she sat down on one of the chairs occupying the upper floor. Soon enough, everyone left to do whatever they wanted to do. We had a day of free time.

_'Well that's odd. You'd expect them to want us to go to Tundra instantly to get Mordecai... Yet, they're letting us have so much free time, even when they know that even the slightest amount of lost time could be fatal to everyone?'_

"A dollar for your thoughts?" Gaige asked as she walked beside me. Glancing over my shoulder, i noticed that everyone went in pairs. Zero with Krieg, Salvador with Axton and Maya with Jay.

"Simply wondering why Roland and Lilith are giving us free time when not even a minute should be wasted. We should've went straight to Tundra Express..." i muttered quietly as i made my way towards Dr. Zed's place, where i knew i could get a mission. Or 'we' if Gaige tags along.

"Well, even if they're worried, i guess they don't want to push us past our limits, thus letting us rest and maintain our strength." Gaige said, now walking slightly behind me, as i opened the door to Zed's place.

"I'M STARVING! I WANNA EAT YOUR BABIES!" Shouted the 'Surgery patient' Who had been strapped to an operating table. "Son, this might sting a bit." Zed muttered as he walked to the table with a syringe in his hand, and pretty much brutally stabbed it into the 'Patient' instead of gently applying it.

I raised my eyebrow as i felt a small aura of confusion, disgust, shock and sadism from Gaige. An odd combination, but whatever.

"Hey, Roland's boys caught this Hyperion jerkbag tryin' to sneak into the city. Looks like they messed up his lungs, dude needs surgery, bad. Get here, you two are gonna be my operating assistants." Zed said as he noticed us just standing at the doorway.

"Alright: make a small incision just below his sternum, but be careful - we don't want to nick the coronary artery." Zed said and i took out my beautiful, Jet black digistructing katana, and cut the man's stomach open, killing him and an unrefined piece of Eridium falling onto the ground.

"...Close enough." Zed and surprisingly Gaige said at the same time, just as Zed noticed the Eridium.

"An Eridium shard? For - HOW many times i tell you idiots? You can't get slag powers by swallowin' this stuff!" Zed shouted, obviously angered by the idiotic Hyperion spy's stupidity. "Eh, that shard ain't no good in the black market. It ain't refined yet. You can probably take it to that _Tannis _lady at the other side of the town, she's real into that Eridium stuff when she ain't actin' all hoity-toity cause she's got a 'Real' doctorate. Oh, and lemme know if you're lookin' for work - i got stuff that needs doin'." Zed as he took the shard and inspected it, then gave it to me.

Just as i and Gaige were exiting his 'Clinic' we heard him mutter: "God as my witness, one day i will find a usable spleen." That made me chuckle and gaige to giggle cutely. As we arrived back at the Crimson Raiders headquarters we saw Tannis speaking to an ECHO recorder.

"As i've said, Roland, now that Jack has the vault key, it is only a matter of time until he opens the vault. Also, i require a new ventilator - This lab smells of bacon. Bacon is for sycophants and products of incest." This cause me to chuckle again. _'i've been chuckling alot, haven't i? Both i and Jay have our own chuckles, too... Mine is 'Kufufufufu' whilst Jay's is an interesting combination of laughter and giggling. It goes like 'Shishishishi.' _i thought to myself absentmindedly.

Before we could even open our mouths, Tannis started babbling at us. "After hours of scientific insanity you could only imagine in your dreams or in my bed - standing offer - I have deduced that Jack, the Vault key and Eridium are all connected on a deeper level." She said, and when she told me her 'standing offer' i could feel a small amount of killing intent, Anger and fury coming out of Gaige's petite form.

"Zed sent us, told us to give you this shard of Eridium." i said with my ever-present smirk-smile and gave Tannis the piece of Eridium. Nobody was exactly sure if i was smiling or smirking. Even i'm not sure all the time. Just as i handed the shard to her, Zed's voice flooded through the ECHO communicators. "Come on back whenever ya need some healin'. Long as you ain't scared of a little tetanus, anyways." Seriously? are these people Psychic? How do they know an exact time when to communicate with us?

"I'll need to think about some things... If you need me, i'll be on top of some building, meditating." I said to Gaige and quickly used **Kamisori (Razor) **to get on top of Moxxi's bar and started my Meditating session. i needed to think about everything. Jack, Vault, Ripper, Jay putting Angel's DNA into the New-U systems, and other things.

* * *

**I know, very small chapter. VERY SMALL.**

**I'm sorry i haven't been updating and such, but my computer broke. I had to order a new one. :L It still hasn't arrived, so i'm currently at my grandpa's, writing this. When i get my new comp, i'll restart on the 1 week = 1 chapter. or 2 weeks = 1 chapter, because school starts before the computer comes...**

**But yeah, Dante and Jay have their unique chuckles/laughters**

**Dante = Kufufufufufu~ ( amount of 'Fu's' May vary )**

**Jay = Shishishishishi ( amount of 'Shi's' May vary. )**

**Once again, sorry for the small chapter, but i'll be getting the computer in 5 days or so. i'll immediately start on a new chapter then. =3**


	12. Lovelies

**Well, guys. You probably want to murder me at the moment... I know i haven't been posting in some time now. Reason for that is, that i'm simply too busy with school and such. I don't have the needed time.**

**I can't keep up the one chapter a week or two. I'll update whenever i can, but i make no promises of any sorts. Don't worry though, i will finish this story. **

**ALSO! i decided to 'Nerf' the rokushiki techniques down slightly. Except the strongest technique, which will now be used for the first time.**

*** Disclaimer Here ***  
**Enjoy.**

* * *

**Jay's P.O.V**

Nothing was going right. Nothing at all. Why were there two of them? There was supposed to be only one! Everything had been going fine, when we regrouped at the sanctuary before leaving, and then all six of us made our way to Tundra Express, blew up the railroad and made our way to Wilhelm.

_*Flashback*_  
_i watched with sheer sadistic amusement as Tiny tina blew up the bandit that she had tied up. Soon enough, she noticed us, and started talking about how Roland told her that we were coming, the train robbery, amongst other things. She then soon ran towards her garage-like working area._

_"This here's Mushy Snugglebites, and this is Felicia Sexopants. These fine-ass womens will bust down that train in no time, but we'll need their badonkadonks first. They were stolen by the bandits a few days ago... Go get 'em!" She 'introduced' us to the bombs that we were to use to blow down the railroad with._

_Mere minutes later, all eight of us were already clearing out the 'Buzzard Academy' of all of it's bandits and buzzards. It didn't take long for the whole area to be empty, except for us vault hunters. Empty, but bloody. Very bloody._

_Thus, we grabbed the Badonkadonks, and made our way back to Tiny Tina's workshop. There' she fixed up 'Mushy' and 'Felicia', as i had started calling them, and soon, we were on our way to the bandit camp close to Tina's workshop, where we were to set down the explosive bunnies._

_In the span of fifteen minutes, we had cleared the area with minor injuries overall, set down the bombs, watched as tiny tina set them off and blew up the railroad, with the second bunny missile hitting the train, even if we didn't see it. A few seconds afterwards, the train came crashing down to the icy lake down below. when it had stopped, we started making our way upwards the train wreck that was said to carry the vault key. Not that it really did._

_We broke all of the loaders that came our way as we made our way to the 'End of the line'. We arrived there in about twenty minutes. Most of us were surprised by the fact that Wilhelm was waiting there, prepared to ambush us. Me and Dante being the only ones not really surprised._

_What really surprised us too, though. was the fact that ANOTHER train wreckage part rose up, revealing a second, dark blue colored Wilhelm, that appeared much more fortified than the first one._

_Goddammit._

_*Flashback ends*_

I used **Soru **to quickly get myself out of the dark blue Wilhelms field of vision. Not that it'd really help by much, considering he quite likely could see our body heat. Seconds after, Dante fell down next to me, as she laid down Gaige next to three other vault hunters that had lost their consciousness. The only ones conscious at the moment were me, Dante, Zero and Krieg. The rest put up a valiant fight, but they were knocked out, and probably won't be waking up anytime soon.

"We'll need to do something about that stronger Wilhelm." Dante said as he watched the regular, yellow Wilhelm finally fall from Zero's and Krieg's constant rain of attacks. But that gave the dark blue Wilhelm the opening he needed, and he bashed his blunt right arm to Krieg's stomach, sending him skidding over the icy ground for several meters. Luckily, he didn't fall unconscious, but he had received quite much of blunt trauma to multiple parts of his body.

"True. But our **Rankyaku's (Storm Leg's)** are only so effective. And using **Shigan** **(Finger Gun) **would break our fingers. That things defense is too great." I said, watching as Zero dodged the two gigantic fists coming his way. Krieg was getting up, but he wouldn't be able to do much damage with all his injuries at the moment.

"i'm thinking of using the **Rokuogan (Six King Gun) **on this thing. Do you think it'd fall if we both did it at the same time?" Dante said, taking the usual stance for **Soru**. his legs spread slightly in front of him.

"The **Rokuogan **would possibly be enough to make it fall down. We've already used quite much of our energy, so we can't fight much, if at all after we do the **Rokuogan**." I said, also positioning myself to the regular stance of **Soru**, but i was going to jump higher, thus i changed the stance slightly, to be able to reach the dark blue Wilhelm's head level.

"GO!" We both shouted at the exact same time, and shot towards Wilhelm number two with speed that only Zero could follow. Dante Jumped up to the dark blue Wilhelm's chest level, whilst i used a small **Geppo **to get onto the same Wilhelm's head level. At the exact same time, we positioned our fists in front of ourselves, and released two massive shockwaves from them, whilst mouthing '**Rokushiki Ogi: Rokuogan**'. **(Six Powers Ultimate Attack: Six King Gun)**

the effects were much better than what we had expected. dark blue wilhelm's head and torso were now nothing more than lumps of useless, bloodied flesh. My **Rokuogan **completely obliterated Wilhelm's brain, whilst Dante's destroyed Wilhelm's heart.

"Holy shit soldiers! i'm not sure what the hell you just did to that second, stronger Wilhelm, but that was amazing! Grab the other Vault hunters and get back to the sanctuary." Roland's voice came through the ECHO communicator.

"Wilhelm dropped a power core. My sensors tell me it's one-of-a-kind. You should grab it and take it back to the Sanctuary. If i'm correct, Sanctuary's shields may never need to be recharged again." Angel's voice said in my head. Or in our ECHO communicators. I'm not quite sure.

Soon enough, the four of us, Krieg, Zero, Dante and i had started to carry the four unconscious vault hunters, Maya being carried by me, Gaige by Dante, Axton by Zero and Salvador by Krieg. Dante stopped before the power core and used his feet to kick the power core onto his head, as if it was a football.

Immediately after he had picked it up, Roland's voice came through the ECHO communicators once more. "Woah. Never seen a power core like that. Why don't you bring it back to here? We may not have found the vault key, but at least the Sanctuary will be safe a little bit longer thanks to you."

That being said, we headed to the one-way fast travel station - whilst listening to Mordecai apologize about the false intel - and transported ourselves to the Sanctuary, whilst listening Krieg mumble about Meat bicycles, and other equivalently interesting subjects.

* * *

When we arrived at the Sanctuary, we, instead of immediately plugging the new power core in, by Dante's suggestion. Knowing that angel would betray us, it was wisest to wait for the other vault hunter's to be in top notch shape. "Why should we wait? That power core could protect us for years!" Roland questioned, slightly annoyed that Dante was suggesting us to wait for some time. Deciding to add my two cents, i said: "Roland. If there's something i've learnt about Dante after all of these years with him, it's to trust his gut instinct. Trust him on this."

Roland seemed to accept that, although he still didn't look too happy about it. Lilith didn't mind much, considering the earlier power core we got from Reiss would still work for a day, which was good for us. And Mordecai? we three - four, if we count Bloodwing - became quick friends and drinking buddies. It was good that Lucard forced us to consume huge amounts of alcohol as a daily routine. Something about not letting our senses get dull, even in an intoxicated state.

"So i hear from Roland that you guys fight with some sorta' superhuman martial arts style? I got back just in time to see you totally annihilate that dark blue Wilhelm with that... what was it called?" Mordecai inquired, as we drinked some Rakk ale in the upper floor of the Crimson Raider's HQ with Bloodwing squeaking and flying around happily.

"it's called **Rokuogan**, Mordecai. It's the strongest technique of our fighting style, but it's not very good to use, considering it drains us of roughly 35 percent of our energy. So it's basically a finisher technique against stronger than regular opponents. Or a last resort, in a way." I said, and tuned Dante out as he began excitedly to babble about our different techniques. Soon enough, Mordecai was pretty fucking impressed, if the way his eyes kept on widening behind his goggles was any indication.

"So let me get this straight, you two can move such speed that you'll be nothing but a blur to even the most trainer soldiers, kick off air itself and remain afloat for hours on end, dodge dozens of bullets whilst practically dancing around them, harden your muscles to such extent that nothing can pierce them, and-" Mordecai was promptly cut off by me, as i corrected something in that last statement.

"Saying that 'nothing can pierce them' would be wrong, considering corrosive and incendiary weapons do deal damage." i said, removing my black suit jacket and the shirt underneath it to show Mordecai the latest wound i had gained by being careless. On my chest there was a scar from an incendiary bullet that i had been prepared to block with **Tekkai**. "Yup. That's what happends when you try to block Incendiary ones. i've got a wound too, mine from a corrosive bullet." Dante said from one of the chairs he had been spinning on, and opened his own suit jacket, taking it off, and showing Mordecai his wound, on his right shoulder that came from a corrosive sniper bullet. Before either of us could put our black T-shirts and suit jackets back on, the four earlier unconscious vault hunter's came upstairs.

"Finally up, i see." Dante said, putting back on his own shirt and jacket, much to the disappointment of the slightly blushing mechromancer. I too put on my shirt and Jacket, and cue slight disappointment from Maya. Not that she showed it - or so she thought, as a small frown came to her lips.

"Maya, you alright? you're slightly red. are you feverish?" I asked in a manner that appeared seriously concerned to the others, but Dante saw that i was teasing Maya, especially when her face reddened even more when i used my superior speed to get in front of her, and gently put our foreheads together. "what are you doing?" Maya asked in slight panic, obviously not knowing how to react to the close contact. "checking if you have a fever. My mother used to do this to me when i was a child." I lied smoothly, considering my parents had died when i was still very young, only a few months after i had met Dante for the first time in kindergarten.

* * *

**Dante's P.O.V**

I watched in sheer amusement as Jay teased Maya, and everyone probably thought that the only one flustered by it was Maya. But i could see that there was a small blush on Jay's face. I soon tuned them and everyone else out and turned towards Gaige, who had sat down on one of the rolling chairs of the upper floor. That wasn't what bothered me though. She was looking at Maya and Jay, still keeping their foreheads together. I could sense one thing coming from her.

Jealousy.

Didn't she like me? I had acted oblivious to the obvious signs of affection, considering i didn't want to be betrayed again. _'Goddammit, Dante. Get a grip. Thinking like that will only surface bad memories.' _i mentally said to myself, and grabbed her right hand and led her downstairs, where there was nobody at the moment, considering everyone was upstairs, planning out our next move after we'd installed the new power core, which would happen tonight at some time.

It's about fucking time i man up and ask her.

Quickly enough, we were downstairs, and standing between all of the washing machines right next to Roland's small 'vault'.

"Gaige... How... How do you feel about me?" I asked, slightly hesitan- oh who am i kidding, whilst i looked calm and confident on the outside, on the inside, i was basically a trembling mess.

"H-How d-do i f-feel about y-y-you?" She stuttered.

_'Maybe i should just take action instead of asking around like this. It is quite obvious she likes me... and i like her very much, too.' _i thought to myself, as i lifted her chin slightly with my right hand, and kissed her lovingly on the lips.

As expected, she froze for a moment, until she absolutely melted into a kiss. What was supposed to be a nice first kiss soon turned to a five minute heated make-out session.

When we finally parted, with a small string of saliva hanging between our lips - which i licked away, causing her already very red face to become even redder - i knew the answer, but decided to inquire anyways. "I'll take that as a 'Yes', then?"

"Y-Yeah..." She said quietly and rested her head against my chest, and i decided to tease her slightly. Just for the sheer amusement that would come from it. "You're really cute when you turn into a stuttering mess though. Maybe i should do that more often, hmm?" I asked and chuckled my 'personal' chuckle that i had gained from my father. He always said that the Japanese copied his laughter for the bad ass villains.

"I-I don't stutter!" She shouted indignantly. "Then why'd you stutter when i asked about your feelings for me?" I inquired, once more with sheer amusement lacing my voice. "B-Because you threw me off gua-" I silenced her with another kiss, which didn't turn out into another make-out session. Just a nice, sweet kiss on the lips.

Before i could continue my teasing, Zero, Krieg, Salvador, Axton, Roland, Mordecai and Lilith came down the stairs. "Wheres' Jay and Maya?" I asked, although i knew the answer already. _'And here i wanted to tease her more... can't be helped though, We'll probably soon plug in the power core that will _

"The two lovebirds just entered quite a make-out session, so we decided to leave." Lilith answered, whilst throwing side-ways glances at Roland.

Soon enough, the two came down, too, both blushing madly. But that didn't matter at the moment. We need Angel's blood here soon for what Jay's going to do with it. I used **Soru (Shave) **to quickly appear next to him, and used the same technique again, combined with **Geppo (Moonstep)**, resulting in a very fast movement through air with **Kamisori**.** (Razor) **"Do you have angels blood yet?" I asked in a hushed tone as we landed on top of the Crimson Raider's HQ. He grew serious and gave me a small nod. "It arrived much quicker than what she or i anticipated, which is a good thing. I'm still not sure how she managed to get it here so fast though. Doesn't really matter, anyways." He said, and we both jumped down from the roof at the same time, and walked inside of the HQ. Before questions could start flying around, Zero spoke.

"Wilhelm's power core/Soon, we should replace the old/and bring on the new." Zero spoke with his bad ass haiku from his place on one of the beds, where he had been resting and reading a thick book. _'When did he even grab that book? Maybe he's faster than i'm giving him credit for...'. _i thought to myself and watched as the other vault hunters expressions brightened up with the idea of doing something. except for Zero and Krieg, one of which was reading and the other running around, screaming about meat.

"Ah true that. Vault hunter, catch." Roland said, throwing me the power core that he had been carrying, forcing me to pull Gaige off me, which left me slightly annoyed due to the lack of physical contact. "Shall i deliver this to Lt. Davis?" I asked as i started making my way towards the exit of the Crimson Raider's HQ

"Yep, he'll plug it in for you." Lilith shouted after me as i exited and making my way towards the outpost-stand-thing that Davis was stationed on, with Gaige following right behind me. "So... uhm... A-are we boyfriend and girlfriend now...?" She asked when we were at the gates of Sanctuary. Or gate.

"If you want to, then, of course. We could always take it to another level though..." I said with a slightly husky, daring voice. The reaction was imminent as she blushed bright red and started stuttering again, but alas, my amusement came to an end when we arrived at Davis' outpost.

"Oi, Davis, Roland told me to give you this. Catch." I said to Davis who was currently sitting on a table, reading a porn magazine of some sort. He soon snapped out of it and started humorously fumbling with the power core in the air. Luckily enough, he caught it and it didn't break. It probably couldn't, either. Both me and Gaige left without saying anything, and just waved over our shoulders as Davis shouted a 'goodbye' at us. He wouldn't know it'd be his last, as the power core let out a small burst of... something. Like a Nova shield usually does. And it completely obliterated his body, leaving nothing behind.

The shields around the Sanctuary fell down, as the moon base started bombarding the Sanctuary, with one of the bombs nearly hitting Gaige. _'Goddammit, Jack. Had that hit her, you'd be on the ground begging for death'. _i thought to myself as i grabbed Gaige bridal-style and used **Soru (shave)** to quickly reach the Headquarters. In a matter of seconds, everybody was in gear and completely ready, as Jack's voice began taunting us through the ECHO communicator's, how everything had been a trap, set by him, the power core being made by him, and how angel was really working for him.

All of us rushed outside to help scooter get the Sanctuary into air, whilst Roland stayed at the HQ, saying something about getting Lilith Eridium.

_'And it's showtime'._

* * *

**And that's the 12th chapter of this story! Sorry that i haven't been updating, guys. Really busy with school and all. ( Don't kill me with paintballs. . )**

**Anyhows, question! Do you guys want the Lemons/Lemon (whichever you prefer) to be thrown into the actual storyline ( if so, when? ) or do you want it as an additional chapter after Jack is defeated and such? That's all i wanna know. Anyhow, see you again when i get the chance to write more.**

**Also, do remember to Review, mkays? Goodie. Buh bai!**


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